Jackson County will get an upgrade to their emergency services as residents will now be able to text 911. According to MLive, the texting program is going to start on Monday and it is mostly to help with emergencies but also to help deaf people. Before this upgrade, deaf or partially deaf people were having trouble getting help or also having delays as well. Forty counties in Michigan already have the service, even though calling 911 is the preferred method to get help.

So if you were text to 911 then you would first see an automated return message asking for the location of the emergency. Once you text the location then a 911 dispatcher starts texting back and forth with you and stays with you until help gets there. The program at this time only accepts texts, but upgrades with pictures and videos will be coming in the future.

The upgrade for Jackson County is great as calls and texts can be routed to the wrong dispatch and cause delays. But with this new system if the call is routed wrong in Jackson County, residents will still get help as surrounding counties Hillsdale and Ingham counties’ dispatch centers also receive texts. More on it here.  

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