Franklin County’s 911 centers sharing technology to receive texts – Columbus Dispatch

Kimball Perry The Columbus Dispatch @kimballperry

Governments across Franklin County are sharing technology to prepare for cellphone texts to 911.

"That's all part of the next generation of 911 going on across the country," said William Vedra Jr., Grove City's safety director.

Governments will continue to operate their communication centers that receive 911 calls and dispatch police officers and firefighters, but the technology sharing will help dispatchers across Franklin County receive texts from cellphones.

Instead of each government in the county spending $650,000 to buy and maintain the system to handle texts to 911, just three will do that. The others can get texts to 911, but those texts will be routed through Columbus, Dublin or Gahanna. The other governments will help pay for the text-to-911 systems.

Under the program:

Columbus will share text-to-911 technology with Franklin County and Grove City.

Dublin will share with Westerville and Delaware.

Gahanna will share with a group of agencies most of themfire departments in eastern Franklin County.

Other Franklin County communities such as Worthington don't have the wireless equipment and therefore aren't certified by the federal government to directly receive texts to 911. Instead, those communities will be "nodes" off the larger systems and have texts relayed to them.

Columbus, Dublin and Gahanna will own and maintain the computers, software and equipment that allows them to receive texts to 911. That equipment will, "within milliseconds," Vedra said, reroute texts to 911 to their partner governments' 911 centers.

For example, after implementation, when someone is in Grove City and uses a cellphone to text to 911 for help, the text will go to the system in Columbus and immediately be rerouted to Grove City, where authorities will respond.

The savings come because each government with a 911 communication center won't have to buy the new text-to-911 equipment and software or have to pay to maintain it.

"The technology is such that there's no reason" for each government to buy the same equipment, Grove City Mayor Richard "Ike" Stage said.

Although cellphones are ubiquitous, few 911 centersare capable of receiving texts to 911. In Ohio, three counties do that: Butler, Geauga and Hamilton.

"It could ensure saving a life," saidCecilia Weirick, Franklin County's regional 911 communications coordinator.

A voice call to 911 is preferred, but texts can be made when callers can't or shouldn't talk.Central Ohio's deaf community, domestic-violence victims or those hiding from potentially deadly situations will be better able to silently contact law enforcement.

"It's becoming, as it is in everyday life, a key communication tool," Stage said of texting. "The impact is it's a changing technology, a changing mode of communication."

The technology is being shared because governments expect an exponential increase in texts to 911 that soon also will include texting photos or videos seeking help.

"You as a citizen will not notice anything. You'll probably wind up getting better service," Weirick said.

The text-to-911 system is expected to be implemented by the summer.

kperry@dispatch.com

@kimballperry

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Franklin County's 911 centers sharing technology to receive texts - Columbus Dispatch