By John Snapp VP of Technology for West, Safety Services
A significant goal was achieved in 2009 when a public safety answering point (PSAP) located in the basement of a county jail in Waterloo, Iowa, accepted the first ever text message to 9-1-1. The Blackhawk County center made history when they successfully received a simple message to send help.
Today, thanks to the voluntary commitment of the carriers to enable the support and routing of text-to-911 calls, PSAPs can prepare their centers to accept and respond to 9-1-1 text messages. Industry leaders have developed standards and hundreds of PSAPs have registered with the FCC to certify their readiness to accept text messages.