Text to 911 services expand across West Tennessee
HENDERSON COUNTY, Tenn. — Help might just be one text message away as more counties across the state implement a new service.
Text to 911 is a system that is rapidly being used across the counties of Tennessee. In certain situations, you may not be able to or feel safe to pick up the phone and call an operator. This service hopes to give you another option.
The 911 Director for Henderson County, Ken Boroughs, tells us more.
“The Text to 911 will provide the benefits for those that are unable to talk to us via voice, such as someone that is in a home that someone is breaking into and they are in a closet or something like that,” Boroughs said. “That will allow them to contact us and give us information that will be needed for us to give a response.”
Text to 911 is to be used only for emergencies. It is not a replacement for calling.
According to the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance, a text or data plan is required to use this service.
Text to 911 may take longer to receive a response. If you do not receive a response, they say to try to contact another way. Photos and videos cannot be sent via this service.
Also, Boroughs tells us that calling 911 is always preferred if you can.
“It is much better to be able to speak to the person calling so we can gather more information. It takes a little more time with the Text to 911 because we are having to type out the information that we are requesting. With the ability to talk to you by voice, it gives us much more detailed information than what we’re going to get from a text,” Boroughs explained.
Sending the text is as easy as it sounds. Boroughs explains to us how to do it.
“All you ought to do is in your text app, just type 911 and put that you’re needing help, and it’ll send that message to us.”
Not every county has their Text to 911 service fully functional at this moment. For instance, Henderson County’s is only web based and should be fully functional in early May. It would be best to contact your sheriff or police department’s non-emergency number to ask.
Click here for more information on this subject.
For more local news, click here.
