More cities consider adding 911 texting capabilities

More than 150 emergency dispatch centers in the U.S. have filed plans with the FCC to start accepting text messages to 911. It something the Snoqualmie dispatch center put into place last July. Executive Director Terry Peterson says about 80% of the 4 or so text messages they receive every day are not for emergencies.

"The other 10 percent or so are valid-- with someone either unable to speak, or they're unable to make a voice call safely."

Peterson says it wasn't long after the texting system was put into place that they got a call from a woman who's life was in danger.

"We had a woman who had barricaded herself in the restroom of her home. There was a friend of a family member that was looking for her, wanting to do her physical harm. He was out in the other room, sort of storming around looking for her. She didn't want to call because she felt that talking would give away her location," Peterson said. "We were able to chat with her, find out her location, through text to 911 to get law enforcement out there."

Peterson says the biggest concern his and other emergency agencies have about the texting technology is that dispatchers will be inundated with texts, but he says that hasn't happened.

"One of the fears is that you'll enable the service and then call volume will ramp up over your staffing levels and create more problems. We really only get maybe 4 texts a day, and only a fracture of those are valid or emergencies. "

Snoqualmie was just the second dispatch center in Washington to implement text to 911. According to the FCC, less than 11% of the nation's call center's use the technology.