Emergency services could be contacted via text message

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Texting may soon expand its reach from bite-sized conversation to reporting incidents to local emergency services.

According to a Nov. 23 Federal Communications Commission press release, 21st century emergency-reporting, including text messaging and video streaming, is a top priority.

“These new technologies have the potential to revolutionize emergency response by providing public safety officials with critical real-time, on-the-ground information,” the release states.

According to the release, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski will begin gathering input from the public about how to make the current dispatch system broadband-enabled this month.

This builds on the FCC plan to update their accuracy requirements so police forces can quickly locate those who report emergencies on their mobile phones.

“I think society will be using texting to communicate more each year,” said Central Michigan University Police Chief Bill Yeagley. “I think most police agencies will use texting as a part of their system in about 20 years.”

The FCC said the benefits of the plan are a faster response from police forces, automatic alerts to authorities and the ability to report emergencies which jeopardize a persons’ safety if they make a phone call.

Isabella County Sheriff Leo Mioduszewski said he could see the value of texting during emergencies.

“Any type of communication that would alert law officials would be beneficial,” he said. “I see it as a benefit not only to law enforcement but to the general citizenry as well.”

Mount Pleasant Police Department Public Information Officer Jeff Browne said he supports the new method if it helps people to report more emergencies and crimes.

“Texting may give us more eyes and ears in the community,” he said.

Browne said the method could be problematic because it is sometimes harder to articulate through a text message than vocally.

He said there also may be problems through dispatch. Dispatchers can coach people through CPR and report information quickly to officers when they receive phone calls.

“Information would depend on how fast you can type,” he said.

Browne said he could see texting slang being a problem.

Yeagley said he is concerned with how an emergency or crime would be handled by dispatch.

“In emergency situations (I) always prefer human to human contact,” he said. “I prefer to never use text as the only way to communicate.”

The FCC release found 70 percent of 9-1-1 calls come from mobile phones, but now cell phone users are making fewer phone calls and sending more texts and picture messages.

Tragic events like the Virginia Tech shooting could have been stopped faster had dispatch been able to receive text messages from students on the scene, the release stated.

“The technological limitations of 9-1-1 can have tragic, real-world consequences,” the release said.

Yeagley said the CMU community is very comfortable reporting emergencies through phone calls or e-mails, but he is supportive of adding texting as a way of reporting emergencies.

“I would like to take a little bit of time to see how different agencies use it and see how they work out all of the bugs,” he said. “One of our primary goals is to be easily accessible to our community.”