:-( Help! ASAP: Iowans Put 9-1-1 Testing to Test

DES MOINES -- A 911 dispatch center in eastern Iowa has become the nation's first to allow emergency callers to seek help via text message.

Beginning last week, callers in Waterloo, Iowa, and surrounding Black Hawk County could communicate with dispatchers using text-enabled cellphones, Waterloo Police Chief Thomas Jennings said.

The short-message text service extends now only to customers of i wireless, a local T-Mobile affiliate, but Jennings said it will likely expand. Enabling 911 systems to accept text messages could help hearing-impaired callers and younger generations, many of whom assume the service already exists, said Jackie Mines, 911 program manager for the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, which is also considering texting.

Texting may allow callers to communicate in areas with poor reception, said John Snapp, senior technical officer for the Colorado-based Intrado. In some cases, he said, cellphone users can send texts when their signal is too weak to place a call, as less signal strength is needed.

Other counties and states are exploring this option. The Minnesota Department of Public Safety plans to create its network as early as this fall, Mines said.

Officials in Shelby County, Ala., are eyeing the 911 text services among other improvements to their dispatch center, said Chris Nussman, education programs manager for the National Emergency Numbers Association, who confirmed Black Hawk County was the first to allow emergency text messages.

A group of counties in southern Illinois may adopt the technology, but many local governments are waiting until federal standards and money become available, Nussman said.

"Consumer expectations dictate that, at some point, 911 texting has to be done nationwide," Nussman said. Mines, Jennings and others who advocate the 911 upgrades stress that voice calls are still the best way to contact emergency dispatchers. Concerns remain about delayed text messages, Mines said.

Black Hawk County's dispatchers spent several weeks learning the often garbled text-message lingo, and already have experience communicating via teletypewriters for the deaf, Jennings said. They also were given texting "dictionaries" to help translate, he said.