JESSUP -- In Lackawanna County, dialing 911 is now one of two options if you have an emergency. Now you can also text 911.
Nearly all police patrol cars in Lackawanna County have the same phrase on them that now may seem a bit outdated: "dial 911" in Lackawanna County.
Dialing is now just one of two options to get help when you need it.
At the Lackawanna County 911 Center in Jessup, director David Hahn took us into the room where all 911 calls are received. The county now has the first fully integrated 911 texting system in the state.
Dispatchers receive calls and texts from the same computer screen.
"It will take 15, 20 seconds at first. There it is right there. That's my text to 911 coming in."
Then the conversation with the dispatcher continues through text messages.
Lackawanna County has only received a handful of emergency texts since this system went online a few weeks ago but Hahn thinks it can help in several different situations.
"You know of course the deaf, hard of hearing, or speech-impaired people, people involved in a crime where you might not be able to speak, or somebody involved in an accident where they may have lost their ability to speak," Hahn said.
As part of their training, dispatchers had to learn how to respond in text language. They each have a dictionary of common texting acronyms and phrases.
Frequent texters we talked to said since smart phones are becoming the norm, texting 911 just makes sense and could make for safer emergency calls.
"Everything is going to smart phones. You don't really see people with computers or the old flip phones. Everybody has smart phone type of some sort. Everything is going wireless, pretty much," said Tanya Stevens of Scranton.
"If you're in a situation where you're in a room with a perpetrator or anything like that, you can just text them without them even knowing and the cops will be on their way and they would have no idea," added Dave Stevens.
You do need a phone with a data plan to text 911.
Lackawanna County officials say the system they use will soon be federally mandated across the country.
