Text-to-911 Adoption Low Amid Local Cost Concerns

Emergency officials said text-to-911 could save lives of people who are deaf, hard of hearing and speech-impaired, and for others in situations where the caller wants to remain silent. It also may feel more natural to a younger generation that prefers texting to calling, some said. “It absolutely saves lives,” said National Association of State 911 Administrators (NASNA) Executive Director Evelyn Bailey. “There are times when that is the only way that someone in trouble can communicate.”

“We have documented cases across the state where a kidnapping was foiled because of an individual’s ability to text,” Indiana Statewide 911 Board Executive Director Barry Ritter said in an interview. Indiana finished deploying text-to-911 across the state in June. “We’ve had medical cases where one particular caller was having an asthma attack and unable to talk, but was able to [text] for emergency services.” There have been domestic violence situations “where it was not safe for the victim to make a voice call, but they were able to text to 911,” he said.

In Vermont, during an initial six-month trial in 2012, “text to 911 was used in at least two life threatening situations, both with successful outcomes,” emailed the state's Enhanced 9-1-1 Board Executive Director Barbara Neal. Over the past four years, “a full range of emergencies have been reported using text -- from car accidents to instances of domestic violence to suicide threats," she said, "and nearly everything in between."

Lacking Access

Four in five counties still don’t have text-to-911 service, according to the FCC PSAP Text-to-911 Readiness and Certification Registry. About 20 percent of counties have at least one text-capable PSAP, it said. Only eight states and Puerto Rico have text-to-911 across their entire jurisdiction. The data show 32 states that deployed text-to-911 in some parts and 10 that haven’t deployed the technology anywhere. The registry, last updated Nov. 22, relies on data self-reported by PSAPs and may not capture all areas that support text-to-911. The FCC didn't comment.

The biggest challenges to spreading text-to-911 are overcoming local authorities' lack of knowledge and resistance to new technology, Forgety said. “Within the core 911 community, there is very strong support for rolling out text-to-911 and doing so quickly,” the NENA official said. Among public safety officials more broadly, there’s been some resistance from “community leaders who haven’t taken the time to understand the technology is mature, stable and key to saving lives in the 21st century,” he said.

“No one’s against the concept of text-to-911,” countered Crowson. “We want to do all we can for our citizens. … The problem is we also have to realistically manage their dollars in a responsible manner.” What’s missing is a clear business plan and a funding mechanism to pay additional ongoing costs for handling text messages from the public, he said. “Local jurisdictions can’t absorb any more unfunded mandates based on technology that has not been developed following a clear business plan.” Texas' Tarrant County, where Crowson sits on the 911 board, receives “just enough” funding from state 911 fees on consumer phone bills to provide reliable voice service, but there’s no surplus to pay for SMS, too, the fire chief said. “Someone’s got to pay for that.”

“It’s not always a lack of desire on the part of the 911 authority,” Bailey said. Politics and limited budgets are among “factors that they have no control over,” she said. She said it’s important to remember that SMS-based text-to-911 is meant as an “interim solution to Next-Generation 911,” and some NASNA members prefer saving their limited resources for NG-911. The NASNA and NENA officials noted that NG-911 may still be years away.

Forgety rejected the “wait-and-see” attitude of some in public safety -- “We’ve waited for years and we’ve seen it work in many places large and small.” He disagreed with those who think it’s a better use of resources to wait until the rollout of NG-911. Deploying text-to-911 now requires an “extraordinarily small amount of resources, time and effort,” he said.

State Rollouts

Two states with text-to-911 fully deployed told us they’re pleased with the technology.

Vermont began with a six-month trial with one carrier in April 2012, Neal said. “The trial was successful and from that point we worked with the remaining carriers to implement text to 911 for their customers.”By August 2013, 90 percent of state wireless customers could text 911; all carriers were operational by summer 2014, she said. The Vermont official said she didn’t recall any major implementation issues. Indiana started a county-by-county rollout in May 2014, after deployment of text-from-911 capabilities started in 2013, Ritter said. The process was “relatively smooth” thanks to a state-operated wireless network, he said. To add texting, the state 911 board decided to use a web browser-based application, he said.

“The most difficult part was educating the PSAPs on the need … for non-voice communication,” Ritter said. With PSAPs operated by local government, the state 911 board didn’t want to mandate text-to-911, and allowed its largest counties to wait and see how implementation went in other areas. The board made a case for the technology by highlighting the importance of texting for those who are deaf, hard-of-hearing and speech-impaired, “as well as the generation of individuals who don’t use their phones to talk,” Ritter said. The board used YouTube videos and tutorials to train telecommunicators, he said.

To teach the public that text-to-911 was available, Indiana did a two-year awareness campaign using print, radio and digital media, Ritter said. The state coordinated communications efforts with the Indianapolis 500 race and other big events, he said. The technology rollout earned large media coverage, he said. With most of the country still lacking text-to-911, he said a continuing challenge is teaching visitors.

Vermont directed outreach to "those individuals who could most benefit from it -- the deaf and hard of hearing community along with individuals who find themselves in dangerous situations where placing a voice call is not a safe option,” Neal said. The Vermont board worked with a local media agency to develop TV and radio spots, with some run as public service announcements and others as paid advertising, she said. More recently, the board used social media “and less structured public education opportunities to keep the public aware of the service,” she said.

911 Overload?

Some local officials fear text-to-911 will overload call center resources, spiking their costs.

Not only might there be more requests for help, but texts also could take longer to interpret than voice calls, said Crowson. A typical 911 call takes about 20 seconds, but a text-based conversation might consume 30 minutes of an emergency communicator’s time, he said. Prevalence of abbreviations in text messages could make them tough to read, especially if the writer uses a non-English language, he said. Crowson also cited increased risk of cyberattacks requiring purchase of additional software at the call center.

Forgety dismissed fears of call-center overloads, which he said is an argument he hears often. PSAPs that have implemented text-to-911 have seen “no massive influx,” the NENA official said. “We’ve seen no instance of call takers confused by emoji or text abbreviations.”

“There was some concern in the beginning that text to 911 may create an unreasonable burden on PSAPs” in Vermont, Neal said. “That has not proven to be the case. Vermont PSAPs handle about 500 or so text messages a year compared to our 200,000 voice calls each year.” Larger counties initially raised the concern in Indiana, said Ritter, but they came around after seeing the data from mid-sized counties that implemented first, Ritter said. The Indiana official said he hasn’t heard of any overload problems since rollout.

Vermont and Indiana may not see overload problems yet, replied Crowson, but that’s because text-to-911 is still in “the inception phase.” Years ago, when cellphone growth exploded, emergency responders started receiving 40 calls for each highway accident; before, they got only two or three from landline phones, the Arlington fire chief said. If the texting technology similarly requires additional staff and other resources, it will significantly raise costs for local jurisdictions, he said.

Texting 911

While some have concerns, many expect to be able to text for emergency assistance, Bailey said. “It’s important to move forward as expeditiously as possible because of consumer expectations and that possibility for confusion,” she said. “That confusion could cost somebody their life.”

One possible risk of some states but not others supporting text-to-911 is that consumers could be confused when traveling, 911 officials said. It’s reasonable for people to believe text-to-911 exists everywhere already, Forgety said. “It’s 2016 -- we can use a text message to order a pizza,” he said. “How is it not possible that we can’t access this fundamental public safety service via text message?”

The risk of consumer confusion supports writing a national standard, said Crowson. The FCC should take charge of setting the standard, establishing a funding mechanism and coordinating education efforts, he said. The fire chief visited the commission about the issue a few years ago, he said. “Local communities don’t want to be the canary in the cave.”

NENA and NASNA officials said they didn't necessarily see a federal role. “The FCC is doing everything that it can within its authority and I don’t think that it can do more,” Bailey said. The FCC gave text-to-911 a big push with its 2014 order directing all carriers and interconnected over-the-top text providers to have the capacity to transmit emergency texts to 911 call centers (see 1408110031), she said. PSAPs are governed at the local and state level, so no federal body could require them to roll out text-to-911, Forgety said. Some people with disabilities have filed lawsuits in states to require text-to-911 service, and DOJ has had pending for about six years an advance notice of proposed rulemaking (docket CRT 111) that could require 911 centers to support SMS text, he said. Justice “could certainly do that, but we’ve seen no indication that they seem to act on that,” he said.

States should use the power of the bully pulpit to promote text-to-911, NENA's Forgety said. “State leaders need to call on their county and local officials to say this is something that we have to have for the good of our people and it needs to get done.”