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Dialing 911 may take on a new dimension in coming years as more and more people move to text messaging as a way to communicate.
At the Valley Emergency Communications Center (VECC), plain old telephone lines carry critical data from caller to dispatcher. Within a half a year or so, Executive Director Bill Harry says it'll change that to an Internet-based protocol.
"...which at some point will allow things like video and text and non-voice to be transmitted to the 911 answering point for 911 dispatch," he said.
But Harry says that some point is maybe years away, with a lot of intricate work to develop a standard system. Still he sees advantages, like a witness being able to text an image from a fire, medical or police emergency, information that could be shared almost instantly with emergency responders, police commanders and hospitals.
But there are also potential drawbacks, like maintaining communication with the caller. One dispatcher at VECC says that's hard enough to do sometimes on a regular telephone line.
Some systems around the country already are experimenting with what's called the Next Generation 911. Harry says so far he doesn't know of any cases in Utah where someone has tried to contact dispatchers in an emergency by text messaging.
E-mail: mgiauque@ksl.com
