WASHINGTON — For anyone who needs help immediately, but can’t talk to a 911 operator, there’s a new option starting Tuesday in Fairfax County.
Fairfax County joins Frederick County, Maryland, in offering text-to-911 service for anyone within the county including the City of Fairfax and the towns of Herndon, Vienna, and Clifton.
Verizon, Sprint, AT&T and T-Mobile customers can text their exact location and nature of their emergency to 911 and an operator will respond.
There are about 6,100 emergency call centers in the United States but Steve Souder, director of Fairfax County Department of Public Safety Communications, says only about 360 of them provide the text-to-911 service.
“That puts Fairfax County in the very enviable position of being one of the 5 percent of 911 centers in the Untied States that is providing this to its citizens who live, work, and visit Fairfax County.”
The next generation of 911 calls will allow people to text photos and videos too. Souder says the county, in coordination with the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, is building a new network and developing advanced hardware capable of receiving and transmitting multimedia.
“The only thing about 911 five years from now that will look like 911 today, is the number 911. Everything will be different. How we get the call, the way we make the call, how the call is transmitted, how we identify where that caller is — it will all be new,” Souder says.
Text messages can take longer to send or receive, so officials say calling 911 is still the best option.
“Text only if you cannot get through by voice,” Souder says. The service will not be available in a “roaming” situation.
In a statement, Fairfax County Supervisor Pat Herrity says natural disasters like storms and earthquakes have shut down voice service in the past.
“This capability can be critical for residents when they have an emergency and are not able to speak — either because it is not safe, you are in danger if you speak, or you are disabled — or if cell service capability is not available but text service is.”
Similar to fake 911 calls, pranksters who text a hoax to 911 will be prosecuted.
Frederick County, Maryland, was among the first jurisdictions in the country to adopt the text-to-911 program and the first in the D.C. metro region.
The Federal Communications Commission has spearheaded the effort to provide text-to-911 across the country. In 2014, the FCC adopted rules that require all wireless carriers to enable emergency texts for 911 call centers that request the service.
Learn more about the county’s new texting service here.
