On June 9, 2009, the Black Hawk Consolidated Public Safety Communications Center, through a collaborative effort between Intrado, Positron Public Safety and i wireless, became the first 9-1-1 call center in the country to successfully receive text messages sent directly to 9-1-1. This groundbreaking effort allows those with speech and hearing impairments to use text messaging to communicate directly with a 9-1-1 operator in an emergency.

Today 31 million citizens in the United States with speech and hearing impairments rely upon text messaging as a primary means of communications. Currently they must communicate with 9-1-1 operators using a relay center or a specialized communications device.

"The successful testing of text messaging to 9-1-1 from a wireless telephone is a tremendous emergency services advancement for individuals who have sensory disabilities," said Richard Ray, chair of the National Emergency Number Association's (NENA) Accessibility Committee. “I urge public safety agencies to accelerate the deployment of this technology and to encourage, support and celebrate efforts such as this."

“Increasingly text is becoming the way people communicate and public safety must be able to support 9-1-1 text messaging,” said Chief Thomas Jennings, chairman, Black Hawk 9-1-1 Board. “We are excited to have the opportunity to participate on a solution to enable 9-1-1 texting for the speech and hearing impaired community as well as set the stage for adoption by the larger texting population.”

The new enhancement to 9-1-1 utilizes Short Message Service (SMS) to establish a text conversation directly between the ‘caller’ and the 9-1-1 operator, with this life saving information delivered through VIPER directly into Power 9-1-1® as an “SMS” call type. While SMS was not initially developed for use in public safety it has gained widespread acceptance by the speech and hearing impaired community and is becoming an increasingly popular form of communication. As part of this program techniques have been identified that will improve the overall speed and reliability of 9-1-1 SMS to make it even better for public safety communications.

This success demonstrates the flexibility and NextGen 9-1-1 readiness of Positron VIPER and Power 9-1-1® integrated with the Intrado Intelligent Emergency Network and the TXT29-1-1 application. It is just one of the many NextGen 9-1-1 capabilities Intrado and Positron will be bringing to our customers.

The trial solution in Black Hawk County will go live August 5th, 2009. It’s important to note that a voice call remains the best way to contact 9-1-1. Texting to 9-1-1 should be limited to use in situations where a voice call is not possible.

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