Brittany Claramunt
bclaramunt@foghornnews.com
@BrittClaramunt
We are all taught to call 911 in an emergency, but what if you are in a situation when you can’t use your voice? The idea to text 911 has been around although it had never made it to Corpus Christi until now. The Corpus Christi Police Department’s MetroCom officials recently announced that they are now able to receive emergency text messages with the three-number code, except in Robstown.
The new program will help the hard-of-hearing community or those with speech disabilities in an emergency. Depending on the situation, voice call is still encouraged because they are able to pinpoint your location and ask questions faster.
According to the Federal Communications Center, if you attempt to send a text to 911 where text-to-911 service is unavailable, you should receive an immediate “bounce-back” message that text-to-911 is not available and that you should contact emergency services by making a voice call or using telecommunications relay services. The FCC’s text-to-911 rules do not apply to text messaging apps that only support texting with other app users or texting via social media are not required to support text-to-911 like Facebook Messenger.
We may be catching up with other cities around the U.S with text-to- 911; however, it is still encouraged to use voice call unless you are in a situation that you may be at risk if you use your voice.