Text to 911 launches on Central Coast
The Central Coast is now the third region in California that will allow people to text to 911. Dispatch centers in Monterey, Santa Cruz and San Benito Counties are launching the new service and gave the media a look at how it works.
Users enter 911 in the phone number section and are able to send a message. Dispatchers are able to message people back. There are limitations. People cannot send pictures, videos, shortcuts or emojis. There is no language interpretation. If a user texts in Spanish, dispatchers will try to accommodate them, but it could take longer. There’s also a lag time from when a message is sent to when it is received. That’s why emergency operations managers want to remind people to call 911, rather than text, when they can.
The service comes at a time when technology that used to help people with hearing impairments (TDD or TTY devices) are now becoming obsolete.
Officials say there are more than 63,000 people who are deaf or hearing impaired in the Tri-County area. One of them is Andrew Taylor, who said it has taken up to 30 minutes to get someone on the phone to respond to his emergency. Prior to smartphones, he could only call 911 from his home or rely on others.
“I wasn’t able to contact anyone with my phone because it wasn’t invented yet,” Taylor said. “So I would just be stuck, maybe on the road. I would have to flag somebody down, another driver, get them to stop and ask if they would mind phoning someone for me.”
Text to 911 can also be used in dangerous situations when calling isn’t safe.
“This means if you’re in a domestic violence situation where you don’t want the abuser to know that you’re calling, if you’re in an active shooter situation and you don’t want to alert the perpetrators to your location or your call, if you’re in a vehicle and you’re being driven by a dui driver and again you don’t want to alert the driver to your call for emergency help,” said Capt. Kelly Cardoza, commander of CHP Monterey.
One local business owner told KION that he is ok with the program, as long as people aren’t texting and driving. Under the right circumstances, he said, he would use it.
“I have five of these 7/11 stores and there’s situations that arise where if I come up, driving up and I get out of my car and see something like that, I’d probably maybe use is,” Kirk DiCicco said.
San Bernardino and Butte Counties also use Text to 911. Parts of Riverside County and CSU Long Beach also have Text to 911. San Luis Obispo is in the process of deploying it.
