Ingham County introduces text 9-1-1

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‘Call if you can, text if you can’t’ is the new motto at the Ingham County 9-1-1 Central Dispatch.

Ingham County became the 49th county in Michigan to enact the new service. Residents can now text 9-1-1 if they are in an emergency situation where they are unable to hear or speak.

Lance Langdon, director for Ingham County 9-1-1, said communicating through the telephone and speaking in an emergency is most important, but also that text-9-1-1 should provide an addition support to those who can’t speak.

“It could be something we talked about like a health-related problem, someone’s choking and they can’t speak, so their only option is to put a text message through,” said Langdon.

The service is also there to help people who may be deaf, deaf-blind, hard of hearing and speech disabled.

Fred Moore, Lansing Chapter Leader of the Hearing Loss Association of America, said this service will help his community from feeling isolated.

“People with hearing disabilities have a very difficult time hearing and understanding speech over the telephone,” said Moore. “Now that 911, we can send texts in emergency situations is going to be such a relief and time saver.”

For more information about Text-9-1-1 in Ingham County, visit 911.ingham.org.

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