Texting for help
Mark Hofmann | 蘑菇视频
Texting 911 dispatchers in an emergency is a service available in most counties in Pennsylvania. It allows those who cannot talk in an emergency to request help.
Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency
This map from the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency shows which counties offer residents the ability to text 911 for help.
More and more 911 dispatch centers and county emergency management agencies in the state have implemented a system for users to contact 911 through text message 鈥� but the capability isn鈥檛 available everywhere.
Greg Leathers, the director of Greene County Emergency Management Agency, said the county wants to have the system in place. However, they鈥檙e currently waiting on one of four cellphone service providers to complete their setup to be a part of the 911 texting system in the county.
鈥淲e鈥檙e confident that some point in 2020, Greene County will have a text-to-911,鈥� Leathers said.
Westmoreland, Somerset, Indiana and Armstrong counties on this side of the state don鈥檛 either.
Jeff Boyle, the deputy director of the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency, said setting up the Text-to-911 system is voluntary for each county and it蘑菇视频 up to officials to contact mobile phone service providers to make the feature available to residents.
A PEMA map indicates that in Fayette and Washington counties, the capability is available for customers of AT&T, Sprint, T Mobile and Verizon.
鈥淭he main advantage of this service is being able to get help to persons unable to speak due to physical limitations or if a caller cannot safely speak openly due to a violent situation,鈥� said Susan Kozak-Griffith, the office manager for Fayette County EMA/911.
She cited incidents of domestic violence or home invasions as situations when someone may be able to text from a cellphone, but could not necessarily pick up a telephone to call for help.
A text to 911 for help works just like sending any other text message. A user opens a new text message, types 911 into the 鈥渢o鈥� field, and in the body of the message includes the specific address and nature of the emergency before sending the message.
A dispatcher can then text back. Griffith said those who utilize a text message instead of a telephone call need to pay attention for responses.
鈥淭yping takes a little more time than open speech,鈥� Griffith said. 鈥淚f responding units have questions, these will be texted to the caller so it is best to refrain from texting others while the 911 response period is ongoing, that is until the responder has arrived.鈥�
While a verbal call to a dispatcher is preferable, many don鈥檛 know that the ability to text for help exists.
Fayette County started working toward texting capabilities for 911 in 2016, and the system went fully operational the following year. And Washington County has had it in place since 2015, said Jeffrey Yates, director of Washington County EMA.
Last year, Griffith said Fayette County 911 received 39 texts, including 35 actionable ones. She said 20% were from hearing impaired people seeking help, while other texts were either accidental, pranks or were test texts.
Even fewer use it in Washington County.
Yates said other than test text messages or other non-actionable texts, they normally receive one emergency text per month.
Yates said the trained dispatchers from Washington EMA are able to efficiently help in those cases.
鈥淚t works out pretty well,鈥� Yates said.