Dispatch Centers in Boulder County, Colo., Now Receiving Text Messages

Oct. 10--Texting is no longer just for OMGs and LOLs and saving letters. It could now save lives.

Dispatch centers across Boulder County now have the ability to receive text messages from cellphones with the four major carriers, AT & T, Verizon, Sprint ant T-Mobile.

By simply typing 911 as the destination number on a text, cellphone users can send a text message to dispatchers, who will receive the text in a window on their computers and can respond by typing back messages.

Boulder Sheriff Joe Pelle said he believes the main benefit will be to people with hearing or speech difficulties, who currently have to use a teletypewriter system to communicate with dispatchers.

"Primarily this will help people who are hard of hearing, deaf or speech impaired," Pelle said. "I think this will eventually take the place of the TTY lines. This gives us the ability to converse with them in text format."

But there are also certain situations where a person may not be able to safely talk to a dispatcher where texting would be a useful alternative, such as domestic violence or home invasions.

"In those types of situations, text to 911 I believe would have been incredibly useful," said Longmont dispatch shift supervisor Stacey Stiles. "We may have been able to get the information faster since we wouldn't be waiting on them being in an environment where they could talk."

Pelle also said there are certain areas of the county -- especially west Boulder County -- where texting might work better than calling.

"There are a lot of places in our county -- especially the mountains -- that have such low connectivity or a low amount of cell phone bars that they can't talk or place a call, but for some reason you can still send a text," Pelle said.

But Pelle stressed that because texting takes more time, law enforcement still would prefer people call 911 whenever they can. Law enforcement agencies released a video with the rollout of the system encouraging people to "call when they can and text if you must."

"It's not the way we would prefer to get 911 calls because it really slows down the transfer of information and our ability to ask questions and update the call," Pelle said. "It's the preferred communication for younger folks, but we don't want this to take the place of a 911 call."

In addition, not all neighboring counties have the ability to receive text messages, and while dispatchers can transfer text messages within Boulder County agencies, they can't do the same for outside agencies.

But in situations that do require texting 911, Boulder dispatch supervisor Mike Ramirez said people should include their location and the type of emergency in the initial text.

"That way we know what we're responding to and where we're going," Ramirez said. "Whether they need fire or an ambulance, that sort of thing."

Both Longmont and Boulder had not yet received any text emergencies in the hours following the rollout. Ramirez anticipates that once people become more aware of the ability to text 911, they will start to see some messages come in.

"It's the world we live in now days," Ramirez said. "It's a pretty neat system."

Mitchell Byars: 303-473-1329, byarsm@dailycamera.com or twitter.com/mitchellbyars

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