East Texas TEXT-911: Most people can’t text 911 emergency services from their wireless phone but for those living in 12 East Texas Counties, that’s changed thanks to the The Deep East Texas Council of Governments. Reporter Wynter Chauvin in Nacogdoches, Texas explains.
“Text to 9-1-1” is a service that allows a text message to be sent directly to 9-1-1 for assistance, in the event a voice call cannot be made. Simply send a text as you would normally but enter 911 as the recipient. Van Bush, the DETCOG coordinator of the “Text to 9-1-1 “ program explains the need for such a system:
”Primary reason to implement the text messaging program for 911 was to address the need of some specific hearing impaired, speaking impaired callers
that previously had to go through either a relay system or a TPY system." Bush explained. "And try and give them a similar level of service to the hearing population and speaking population. It also serves a market, if somebody can speak and they can hear and they are in a situation where doing so would be dangerous, domestic violence situation or something like that. “
A fifty cent fee on your monthly cellular phone bill pays for the system. If your service provider is AT&T, Verizon, Sprint or T-Mobile you can use the text to 9-1-1 system now. Soon regional carrier Cellular1 will be active as well.
East Texas counties served by Text to 911 are Angelina, Houston, Jasper, Nacogdoches, Newton, Polk, Sabine, San Augustine, San Jacinto, Shelby, Trinity, and Tyler.
