FDL County Text To 9-1-1 Service Nearly Ready

With the upgrade to Fond du Lac County’s phone system the County will soon launch its Text to 9-1-1 service. County Communications and Emergency Management Director Bobbi Hicken says they recently completed testing and employee training. She says, “I have been working with all of the major cell phone providers in testing, so we have to have people with those phones call or text into 9-1-1 so we can make sure that we’re getting that feed back-and-forth.” The Text to 9-1-1 service is expected to benefit those who wouldn’t be safe to talk over the phone and the hearing impaired in the community. Hicken says if you can safely call 9-1-1 and talk with a dispatcher they would prefer you still did that. She says, “If we can at all talk to the person it is so much better that back-and-forth is instantaneous. We are also hearing things in the background, can really get a better grasp of what is going on and what that need is.” Hicken says they are asking people to use whole words and not abbreviations or symbols when texting to 9-1-1 so dispatchers won’t have to waste time deciphering the meaning.