What is Text-to-911?

Text-to-911 is an emergency service that allows individuals to send text messages to emergency dispatch centers, such as 911 in the United States and Canada, instead of making a traditional voice call. This service is primarily designed for individuals who are deaf, hard of hearing, or have difficulty speaking, as well as in situations where making a voice call is unsafe or not possible.

Text-to-911 enables people to communicate with emergency services by sending a text message, typically using their mobile phones. The text message is received by a trained emergency dispatcher who can then respond and coordinate appropriate assistance.

It's important to note that while text-to-911 is becoming more widely available, it may not be universally accessible in all areas. The availability of this service depends on the capabilities and infrastructure of the local emergency dispatch center. It is recommended to check with your local emergency services to determine if text-to-911 is available in your area.

In cases where text-to-911 is not available or if you have the ability to make a voice call safely, it is generally still recommended to call 911 directly to ensure the fastest and most effective response in emergency situations.

How NICE Can Help?

With emergency communications becoming more complex by the day, and turnover at an all-time high, having the insight and time to focus on staff has never been more essential. That’s where NICE comes in. As the single system of record for all your data, we give you more time back in your day to engage with staff. And help you get to the truth that’s hidden in your data faster. With the ability to see everything exactly as it happened, our automated solutions for 911 audio recording and reconstruction, automated evidence production, automated 911 quality assurance and real-time performance metrics put the truth at the heart of everything you do. Whether it’s reconstructing incidents, or empowering your telecommunicators to be the best at what they do. NICE helps you get it right every time.


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Webinars

Taming 911 Turnover: Strategies for Success

Overstressed, overworked and underappreciated: 911 telecommunicators everywhere are reaching a breaking point. It’s no wonder average annual turnover is nearing 30% and 1 in 5 telecommunicators leave their job in the first year. With a shrinking applicant pool, it’s more important than ever to keep your current telecommunicators happy and engaged. Supportive supervision is essential, but as a 911 leader, you can’t be spending time coaching and training when you’re too busy doing other things. It’s also difficult to provide effective support when you don’t know where or how telecommunicators are struggling in the first place. View this on-demand webinar to learn about innovative solutions that 911 centers are implementing to tame rising turnover.

White Papers

eBook: 5 Ways to Improve 911 Staff Performance & Retention

Running a Public Safety Answering Point isn’t easy. Problems can come at you from every direction. Take 911 turnover, for example. Your telecommunicators are the very heart of your 911 center, but the revolving door is working against you. Supportive supervision and perceived recognition are two key factors in predicting employee commitment. But as a manager, you can’t allocate time to provide individualized supportive supervision if you’re too busy doing other things. And you also can’t provide effective support if you don’t know where your telecommunicators are struggling in the first place. In this eBook we show you 5 ways to address these challenges to improve performance in your PSAP.

White Papers

Digitally Transforming 911: Creating Frictionless PSAP Operations

As a 911 center leader, you’re pulled in a lot of different directions. Your time is consumed managing daily operations, and handling performance reporting, hiring, staff supervision, and even navigating different systems to reconstruct incidents to fulfill evidence requests. All of this manual work and the friction it creates in day-to-day processes can slow you down, and distract you from important things that can keep your staff motivated and engaged – like Quality Assurance, coaching, training and mentoring. In this on-demand webinar, City of Detroit CIO Art Thompson and NICE's Joe Scaffidi explain how you can free up time and resources to focus on the human side of 911, by digitally transforming manual, time-wasting tasks.

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If you’re considering NICE, or just want more information, simply fill out the form and we’ll be in touch.