Texting 911 now an option in Camden County

LINDENWOLD - If you can't call, now you can text.

That's the message being delivered by Camden County as it rolled out the state's first 911 text service Thursday. The new service allows those in emergency situations to text dispatchers instead of calling them.

"It's just that, it's text 911," said John Young, county freeholder and liaison to the Camden County Department of Public Safety. "What we envision is that this is probably the next generation of 911."

A dedicated text message dispatcher will answer the messages in real-time as they come in, just as they would a phone call.

Hank Birkenheuer is one such dispatcher. He sits in a darkened room in the county public safety office with his face lit by several computer screens. As a text comes in, he selects a response from a drop-down menu of prewritten messages and answers. There are close to a dozen prewritten responses, most of which are built for the early stages of the conversation when a dispatcher like Birkenheuer needs to gather information. When one doesn't fit, he can craft his own text.

Birkenheuer and other text dispatchers are at the county office in Lindenwold, but they transfer the information they get to the local emergency responders in the area of the person in need.

"It works the same as regular 911," Young said. "As soon as you text 911 it pops up on their screen and once it pops up they can respond."

Director of Public Safety Rob Blaker encourages residents to make voice calls to 911 when possible. Texting is quick and efficient, but still slower than voice calls. Text dispatchers are trained to first ask the resident, "Can you safely make a voice call?"

But when a call isn't possible — or safe — texting is key.

"You can imagine a kid in a classroom where (there's a shooter and) they can't talk," Young said. "Now they can actually text to the dispatcher where they are, how many people are in the room, and how many shooters there are."

Officials hope the new service can help during home intrusions, domestic abuse situations, and other violent encounters where being heard on the phone with the police could mean being hurt or making the situation worse. It also allows someone in an accident or trapped to send a message when they can't pick up the phone to call.

Birkenheuer's screen hosts another small window for those who can only get a little information through at a time. A refresh button sits below a portion dedicated to Google Maps. The map lets Birkenheuer try to triangulate the area where the texts are coming from. As he continues to refresh and retry the triangulation, a purple circle showing the possible location of the texter gets smaller and smaller.

"The same as with a 911 mobile call, you're not going to get an exact address," Blaker said. "But we can pinpoint a specific perimeter and send police to investigate."

The county has been testing the service since March and already has handled more than 100 emergency texts. Creative thinking from the team has allowed them to answer messages that weren't in English by using Google Translate, and the service has been discovered to be an effective option for those who are hearing impaired.

Residents of Camden County can start using the service immediately, with other counties to follow suit in launching their services in the near future.

"We are very proud to be the first county to do it," Young said. "This is a state-of-the-art facility and these guys just do a wonderful job."