Why can't you text message 911?

[XXXNoahXXX]

Just thinking of hostage, school shooting, type situations where keeping it on the down low is of the utmost importance.

I know you can always text someone else and have them call the police, but for sake of ease, and possible texting back to gain info, doesn't this seem like something that should be set up?

[Aloysius]

You can text 911 dude

-Al

[XXXNoahXXX]

[ QUOTE ]
You can text 911 dude

-Al

[/ QUOTE ]

No you can't dude.



Just found this article.

[THAY3R]

[ QUOTE ]
You can text 911 dude

-Al

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Nowhere in that article does it say you can text message 911.

OP,
Yea, I agree that you should be able to Text Message 911, I would imagine it could be quite useful.

[Aloysius]

UCF - (from the article I linked)

[ QUOTE ]
Some residents of the affected areas managed to reach help using other phone services, including text messaging over their wireless phones, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), and satellite telephony. “Katrina proved that in emergencies you now have multiple ways of communicating,“ says Rick Jones of the National Emergency Number Association. “All worked in certain places, and all didn’t work in certain places. Every service had its limitations.”

[/ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]
Learn to use text messaging. In Katrina-battered New Orleans, wireless voice calls jammed the few remaining cell sites. But the same damaged telephone system continued to deliver text messages. If you’re not familiar with creating and sending a text message, consult your phone’s instruction book or the nearest teenager.

[/ QUOTE ]

To be honest I didn't read the article too carefully, and I read above reference text to 911, or some equivalent call center that handles emergencies.

Anyway from brief Internetting, it looks as if some areas in the US do have this capability, and actually the article Noah linked explains the lag in revamping 911 services to handle VOIP and other ways of reaching 911. And I agree it would be super useful.

-Al

[XXXNoahXXX]

Yeah, the article I linked says they are testing it in VA and TX and hope to expand to national testing in '08. This time frame seems very slow, seems like something that could be dealt with.

But I guess if they cant even get Vonage 911 right, then whatever/

[xwillience]

i think its a work in progress. TBH, 911 isnt even really set up for cell phones fully, let alone texting. part of what makes 911 so useful is that the E911 system, which is the system pops your address up on screen when you call in. with cell phones you have to give specific information, which can lead to problems if the line is disconnected or the caller becomes incapacitated. Not to mention get routed incorrectly. (my department was dispatched to find a woman who drove over a cliff and was disoriented only to find out several hours later that she was in a ravine in florida. i live in WA.) Texting is even worse... you can prank text calls, there is no two way communication, there is no single origin, etc etc. I agree that the ability to text 911 could be helpful in some of the cases above, but technology right now just isnt there. texting 911 would be good, but couldnt be utilized as a primary source for dispatching.

imagine a kid using a proxy to prank text a bomb threat in a major metropolitan area. it would reak havoc on the system.

[cliff]

[ QUOTE ]

imagine a kid using a proxy to prank text a bomb threat in a major metropolitan area. it would reak havoc on the system.

[/ QUOTE ]

One concern I have heard is that using VOIP for 911 calls opens emergency response centers to the same attacks as web sites, i.e. denial of service, etc. which could be exploited in a terrorist attack to simultaneously hurt a lot of people and shut down the response centers.