Christian County residents will soon have another way to contact 911 if someone is unable to make a voice call due to a threat or medical condition.
The Hopkinsville-Christian County Emergency Communications Center will be integrating texting into its 911 answering system which will become fully functional for inbound text on September 1.
Beginning August 10, officials say the community will begin to see 911 hang-ups from mobile devices responded to by a text from 911 instead of a callback. This will be the beginning phase of the 911 operators utilizing the text-to-911 system on an outbound basis only. They say this will continue until September 1 when it becomes fully functional. This will also allow the public to start utilizing their mobile devices to text 911 for assistance.
E-911 officials say the public should only use 911 if it is the only option and making a voice call to 911 is not possible. They point out this technology directly benefits members of the community who are deaf, hard of hearing, or speech impaired.
According to officials, all major mobile providers support this service, including AT&T, Verizon, T-mobile, and Sprint. Other providers who rely on any major telephone carrier’s network should be able to text-to-911.
For more information regarding Text-to-911 in Hopkinsville-Christian County, you can contact ECC Section Supervisor, Stephanie Noel.
