Text 911 Services Coming Soon to Montgomery County
In situations where people can’t call 911, texting will soon be an option to get law enforcement and first responders on the scene.
Sending a text with photos or videos to 911 is a feature hitting several Alabama counties and soon Montgomery County dispatchers will be able to respond to emergencies sent from a simple but detailed text.
“Here in Montgomery County, both the county and city are ready to accept text and video,” says Col. Jon Briggs with the Montgomery Sheriff’s Office.
During frantic times, when a phone call cannot be made, the service could help law enforcement respond faster.
“The current era of social media is one that everybody wants to tell everyone but sometimes we’re not always the first to get it,” says Briggs.
“Right now, anytime the police pull up at a house they’re filming and the same way they’re filming when the pulls up, I want them to film the same way when they look out their window and they see someone kicking in somebody’s door,” says Montgomery County Sheriff Derrick Cunningham.
Briggs says the equipment and lines are in place, they are just waiting on the state to finish configurations before they can flip the switch.
“We have been preparing for it now for several years by getting the equipment in place and and getting everything that we need ready for it,” says Briggs.
Each text will be answered immediately and responded to accordingly just as all 911 calls coming into dispatch.
“We’re hoping that it will get the calls to us faster so that we can respond to the incidents in a more proficient way,” says Briggs.
“We love to text, we love to video, but let’s video before the law enforcement get there. I want to see what happens before. I want to be able to catch the people that are actually committing these crimes,” says Cunningham.
The text 911 service is already available in nearly 20 Alabama counties.
Law enforcement officials expect that it will be at least a month before the text 911 service is available in Montgomery County.
