SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Texting 911 is a rather new thing in Sacramento County, and this past weekend, California Highway Patrol dispatchers already found success with it.
A text sent to 911 led to an arrest of a suspected drunk driver in South Sacramento.
While texting is not necessarily a new feature and is not widely used, the CHP would like more people to know about it.
"The vast majority of things we see are usually driving related, usually drunk driving. We get a lot of texts about drunk driving which is a good thing," said Luke Kelly, supervisor for CHP Sacramento Communications Center.
Text 911 is not the most popular way to make a 911 report, but they are proving to save lives.
"Every month on average we take maybe 200 to 400 texts to 911, and, yes, we get butt dials on 911 texts too," Kelly said.
The texts come through like a normal messenger.
The dispatcher receives the text and sees the person's number and location with latitude and longitude. Dispatchers are able to respond to the message with prompts or with specific questions.
"There are no emojis. Emojis don't work. They are great for compelling emotions. We don't have the capacity to handle multi-media," Kelly said.
If you can call, call. Texting is great, but a dispatcher can get much more information over the phone than over a text.
"We would always much rather prefer people to call if they can, but we recognize the fact that there are not always situations that are conducive to call 911 - and that's where text 911 comes into play," Kelly said.
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