By Savannah Packard
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkno/local-wkno-941230.mp3
Nashville, TN – You can't text 911. Sure you can type "help" and hit send, but it won't go anywhere - at least for now.
In the coming months, Tennessee's 911 dispatch centers will install new digital equipment capable of receiving texts. But even then, kinks in the technology highway will have to be ironed out before an emergency text will get from point A, you, to point B, the 911 dispatcher. From WPLN in Nashville, Savannah Packard reports.
A shaky voice on the phone tells Kim Acevedo a co-worker has chest pains and can't feel her arms.
"Is she changing color? (she's very red turning purple.) Purple? OK. Is she clammy?" Acevedo asks.
Acevedo has been a 911 dispatcher in Nashville for almost six years. Although she asks callers many questions, the first is so important she asks it twice.
"Can you ask her the address of her emergency? Ok for one more time can you ask her for verification? Is she saying Weber or Weaver with a V like Victor?" Acevedo asks.
Dial 911 from a home phone and an exact address pops up on Acevedo's screen. A cell phone call shows her your longitude and latitude. If you send her an emergency text, she won't know where you are because she won't get the message.
Acevedo's boss Duane Phillips says, in order to understand why, you have to first understand how 911 works.
"911 is really a ten digit number like everything else. So when you dial 911 it actually goes to the phone company who reverts that to us over our ten digit number," Phillips said.
Getting a text message to make that sort of conversion relies on the phone companies that offer messaging services. There are 14 of them in Tennessee and nearly 200 nationwide.
Rex Hollaway says emergency texting should be available and uniform across state lines.
"Because it's gotta work the same everywhere, because I travel all over the place," Hollaway explains. "I don't want my phone to work in this state or this county and not work in the next state."
Hollaway directs technical services for Tennessee's 911 system. He says, for 911 texting to become a reality and a coherent system everyone has to get on the same page, phone companies and state agencies.
"And just bringing all those people together with the same not necessarily conclusion but at least the belief that they need to have a single standard. You know everybody thinks their way is the best way," Hollaway said.
It's not just about agreeing on how it should work, but weather emergency texting should be an option at all.
For now, cell phone companies deem texting a casual messaging service. That's why sometimes you receive a text in an hour and sometimes the next day. Chris Walker, the director of public affairs for AT&T in Tennessee, says texting was never meant for use in an emergency.
"It's easy to send a text and say, "I'm picking up groceries," Walker explains. "But, again, if that message doesn't get through, it's not, you know, it's not life threatening."
For many people, texting has become a basic form of communication. Americans currently send and receive 1.8 trillion texts a year. Emergency officials fear people have the expectation that 911 is text ready. But it's not.
Tennessee is installing Next Generation 911 or NG911 equipment. It's digital and should be capable of receiving text messages. But many emergency officials wonder if the Federal Communications Commission will need to step in and make new mandates for before it will work.
Patrick Donovan, an attorney in the FCC's 911 rules division, says it's hesitant to make new texting policies.
PATRICK DONOVAN: "Well we're not even sure if we are going to regulate texting. Or if texting will play a roll in NG911. We certainly hope it will," Donovan said.
"So it could be years?" Packard asks.
Donovan says, "Correct."
So, for now, and the foreseeable future, calling 911 is the best way to get help.