By Kelcey King
Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise
BARTLESVILLE, Okla. — City and county emergency officials say they are working to offer a service that would allow citizens to text 911 in an emergency.
The program, Text-to-9-1-1, allows citizens to send text messages to local 9-1-1 call centers during an emergency. According to Bartlesville Police Department Lt. Kevin Ickleberry, the program will provide a way for contacting emergency services in the event that a phone call is difficult to make.
“Text-to-9-1-1 would be open to virtually anybody in an emergency situation that does not feel safe in calling directly to 9-1-1,” Ickleberry said. “Texting seems to go through when nothing else does.”
Ickleberry said the goal of the program is to “make sure every citizen has the ability to contact emergency services, whatever that problem they have may be.” The target market for the program, he said, includes domestic abuse victims and the local deaf community.
“We’re trying to make sure that we’re covering every base that we can to make sure everybody is given the same ability to reach 9-1-1,” he said.
According to Eric Ashlock, community development officer for Washington County, the program is an “interim solution” to a long-term goal.
“What we’re looking at now is just an interim solution — it’s not the end,” he said. “… There are lots of limitations to it. One is the actual messaging protocol that is used. It’s not a video; you can’t send pictures. Texting is between one person and the call center. If you do a group message and you want to include your mom or your friends that somebody’s trying to break into your home or you have a medical condition, it’s not going to work.”
Additionally, Ashlock said texts do not take priority over calls in emergency situations.
“Call if you can, text if you can’t,” said Ashlock. “The 9-1-1 text doesn’t take priority. Text generally works when voice calls don’t work on a wireless device. However, it’s best guest service, and you’re limited to 160 characters.”
The Text-to-9-1-1 service is currently not available in any counties in Oklahoma. Ashlock said Washington County has been working with a number of other counties across the northeast part of the state to provide the service.
“Darryl Maggard, who is the Muskogee city/county 911 coordinator, is the spearhead of that organization,” he said. “He’s pulled us all together, so we’re all looking at interoperability. We’re getting as many people that are in the business to look at this so we can poke holes in it and see what our limitations are.”
While Text-to-9-1-1 is not yet available in Washington County, Ickleberry said the city is implementing a similar program.
“Currently, we have a vendor that we use called Smart911,” Ickleberry said. “Smart911 is a service we began last year. It is a service that the city and county pay for the call center, and it’s free to the citizens.”
Ickleberry said with Smart911, citizens can register their cell phones online and include a variety of information regarding their home and family.
“You can put as much information in it as you want or as little,” he said. “The whole purpose behind it is to make sure that we at the call center have as much information (as we need) so that if somebody calls from your phone or your household and says that you’re having an issue, and we can see what that issue is and what you’re allergic to, we can give pre-arrival instructions to the (Emergency Medical Services).”
Ickleberry said the police do not have access to any of the information in the program unless someone calls 9-1-1.
“A lot of people get worried that it’s the government looking at you. We do not get that information unless you call 9-1-1, and then we only have it for a period of time,” he said. “That’s so we can serve you, and then it’s gone. We can’t recall that to pull up all your information. It’s not an investigative tool for law enforcement.”
The target date for Text-to-9-1-1 availability in Washington County is July 1, Ickleberry said, though the county is not required by law to implement the program by a certain period.
“There’s a lot of back office things that have to occur. We have to do a lot of planning before it’s even available,” Ashlock added.
“A true first responder is the dispatcher,” said Ickleberry. “They’re the ones trying to make sense of somebody that’s screaming and yelling. This (information) coming from a text may be an easier way to communicate, because (some people) get excited (and) they get so verbal that it’s hard to make out what they’re saying to you … Truly, they (dispatchers) are the first responders, and we want to provide them all the technology possible to make their job not only easier but more efficient.”
For more information regarding Text-to-9-1-1, visit www.fcc.gov/text-to-911. More information on Smart911 can be found at www.cityofbartlesville.org/page.php?page=1271.
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©2015 the Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise (Bartlesville, Okla.)