NYC Text-to-911 slated to debut in early 2018
Tech is lauded by advocates for disabled, victims of domestic violence
Not all emergency calls should be phone calls.
Three weeks ago, for example, a woman locked in the trunk of a moving car was able to text 911 for San Bernadino, Calif., Dispatcher Veronica Garcia said in a phone interview. Emergency responders were able to find the captive woman, a victim of domestic violence, after she sent the text without alerting her kidnapper, Garcia said.
And last month, a young person with a hearing impairment in in Chemung County, NY, was able to alert police to a domestic emergency via text message. Officers responded and mediated the situation, said Chemung County Supervising Dispatcher Gary Shaw.
In just a few months, this texting technology will be available to New York City residents, an interim phase of Next Generation 911, the city’s plan to overhaul its emergency communications. Director of communications Stephanie Raphael confirmed in a phone interview that the Department of Information and Telecommunications Technology (DoITT) is scheduled to roll out its Text-to-911 program in early 2018.
More than 1,100 departments across 27 states have implemented text-to-911 systems since 2014, including a dozen New York counties such as Monroe, Montgomery and Rockland, according to the Federal Communications Commission.
In the case in Chemung County, the victim would have been unable to get help without the texting service, Shaw said in an interview. Although teletypewriter (TTY) systems have been available for years to help the hearing impaired with phone calls, Shaw said they’ve become outdated, since very few people own them in the era of smartphones.
In January 2017, Nicholas Dupree, of Queens, and Deborah Logerfo, of Long Island, sued New York City for failing to provide text-to-911 services sooner, a delay which they said violates the Americans With Disabilities Act, according to the civil complaint. LoGerfo has partial deafness and uses written notes and text messages to communicate. Dupree, who died in February of this year, used a ventilator and communicated via eye-tracking software. Both had tried to contact 911, LoGerfo to report a car fire and Dupree to get help in a medical emergency, and were unable to speak to dispatchers, according to the complaint. The case is ongoing.
In New York City, residents who are deaf or otherwise unable to call can use phone relay services by dialing 711 on a mobile device and having a translator contact 911. The caller can then input text using their mobile device, and the translator relays the message in voice to the dispatcher.
“It’s no different than making any other kind of phone call if you’re hearing impaired,” Christian Valle of the Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities said in an interview.
A text message, which instantly appears on a browser monitored by 911 dispatchers, can save valuable seconds in an emergency, said IT Administrator Garrett Weinheimer of Montgomery County. Although a 911 call is still preferred, dispatchers can also respond to messages to ask for more information while using the mobile device’s signal to locate the sender.
“It works beautifully for people with disabilities,” Communications Chief Adam Feurer of the Rockland County Sheriff’s Department said. “When we launched it, we had advocates for the hearing impaired in Rockland County cheering us on.”
Texting 911 can also be valuable for keeping victims safe, said Joe Giacalone, a retired NYPD sergeant and adjunct professor of criminal justice at John Jay College. In the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando last summer, victims texted friends and family members for help, afraid that a phone call would alert the shooter.
“We’re in a changing world and we see more of these mass shootings and the like. It’s a long time coming,” Giacalone said.
