If you are choking on a piece of hot dog and can’t talk or in a situation where making a voice phone call isn’t possible, most mobile phone users in Indiana are now able to use Text-to-911 service so you can request emergency help.
A text message to 911 sent last week by an Indianapolis woman who reported that she was being abducted resulted in the woman’s rescue by police on Interstate 70 in Vigo County. That situation helped raise awareness of the usefulness of Text-to-911.
“As of today, it’s available in 88 of 92 counties,” said Barry Ritter, executive director of the Indiana Statewide 911 Board on Monday, who said that Indiana has the largest deployment of the service in the country.
“When it comes to 911, we’ve been able to lead the country for several years with 911 services,” Ritter said. He credited that to Indiana’s decision several years ago to handle wireless 911 as statewide initiative, which makes it more efficient to work with mobile service providers.
Most states offer Text-to-911 in some areas. Illinois offers it only in about five areas of Cook, Clinton and Champaign counties, according to the Federal Communications Commission website. It is not available in Edgar, Clark or Crawford counties in the Wabash Valley.
Text-to-911 is available in markets where 911 call centers — known as Public Safety Answering Points, or PSAPs — have elected to accept emergency text messages from the public. The four major wireless carriers — AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon — are already voluntarily providing Text-to-911 service. Also, an individual’s phone must have a text messaging program enabled before text messages can be sent to a 911 PSAP.
In Indiana, statistics collected since May 2014, when the service officially went online, show that eight 911 dispatch centers in the state have received more than 50 text messages requesting assistance, Ritter said, and 30 dispatch centers have received fewer than 50 text messages. That shows that people are aware of and using the service, he explained, but they are not overwhelming any 911 center with text messages.
Also importantly, people are using text-to-911 in appropriate situations, Ritter said.
It is still better for a person to make a voice call to 911, he emphasized, but there may be some cases where a text message works better.
Dispatcher centers that receive 911 hang-up calls or dropped calls from a mobile phone also have the ability to send a text message back to that phone to see if emergency help is needed.
At the Vigo County 911 Center, director Rob McMullen said that if a dispatcher receives a 911 hang up, the dispatcher will first try to call the person back. If there is no answer, then a text message will be sent. McMullen said that Vigo dispatchers have sent more than 3,000 texts to callers as a follow ups.
Ritter said that the ability for 911 dispatchers to send a text to the public is the largest use of the service so far. More than 80 percent of the time, when a person receives a text from a 911 center, he said, the caller will respond that the 911 hang up was accidental, or a child playing with a phone or some other non-emergency reason.
In the case of the recent text-to-911 incident that occurred on I-70 involving the Indianapolis woman, the Putnam County 911 center was able to contact the Indiana State Police at Putnamville, who eventually stopped the vehicle in Vigo County. At the time, police were told by the woman that her boyfriend was taking her car without permission to St. Louis. That man was arrested for criminal confinement and other charges, and he has hearings set in Vigo Superior Court 3.
Vigo County Chief Deputy Prosecutor Rob Roberts told the Tribune-Star that the text messages sent in that case are being considered part of the investigatory record and are not being released to the public at this time.