Scott County residents now have a new way to contact 911 during an emergency. As of Friday, 911 call centers in Scott County began accepting text messages via the Text-to-911 service.
A push by the Illinois State Police is pushing county emergency systems across the state to upgrade to enhanced Next Gen 911 service. Scott County 911 Service Director Brady Milnes says Scott County is just the third county in the state to implement the text feature in its Next Gen 911 service.
“If you pull out your phone and type 911 into the “To” section where you would type in someone’s name or phone number, you will be directly communicating with 911. Our telecommunicators will take that 911 call just like they would a voice call. It will ring the phone just like when you dial 911. They will answer it and will start typing back to you. It may take a little bit longer because of the fact that they have to type everything out, but it will be just like the usual communication.
Now if it’s an emergency to where you can’t talk, such as a hostage situation or some sort of medical emergency where you are unable to talk or anything like that, it is the perfect solution. However, the state has encouraged us to put out there that if you are able, to make a voice call as that is still the preferred method.”
The Next Gen 911 service now works off of a cloud-based system that Milnes says will actually be more reliable and less prone to system issues. He says in the event the Scott County 911 system does go down, there is a backup plan so residents can still be in contact with emergency services.
“So this I think will be a more secure line for calling 911. However, in the event something does go down with our systems, we partner with West Central Joint Dispatch in Jacksonville and they are our emergency call-taking backup, and they also have the capability for texting to 911.
So in the event something happens here, your call will automatically be rerouted to West Central. They will take it just like we would and they will let us know immediately what is going on and help will be on the way just like it would if you called here.”
The updated 911 system also works with the location services for each cell phone and can pinpoint a 911 caller’s location with accuracy of within a few feet instead of within a few hundred yards as the previous system did.
Milnes says the service also uses the RapidSOS system, which allows residents to create an online emergency profile that can get vital medical information to dispatchers immediately.
“I’ve already made a profile there for myself. All you do is log in and fill out your information, you put in your cell phone number and they ask if you have allergies to medications, any pertinent medical history, and emergency contact- that kind of stuff.
So that way in the event of an emergency, you’re able to dial 911 but if you can’t talk or you don’t think to provide that information, as soon as you dial 911 from that cell phone number that is registered to the account, that information is automatically populated to our screen. So we have your emergency contact, medical history, allergies, that kind of stuff as we respond.”
To create your own record, go to emergency profile dot org. Milnes says as we move into the new age of technology, he hopes the updated Scott County 911 system will help first responders have faster response times with more accurate information which ultimately can be the difference to help save a life in an emergency.