Can you text 911 in an emergency?

Some departments are experimenting with texting for routine calls, but it is not yet practical for 911.

Most 911 calls require additional questions so the dispatcher can determine what services you need. That takes a lot of time, which ties up the dispatcher, delays the response, and may put the responders at risk because they don't know what they are going to.

It is not unusual for people to confuse robbery (a crime against a person) and burglary (a crime against property). If you text the wrong one, you will get the wrong response.

Domestic violence is another example. Many times the victim downplays the incident and just asks the police to remove the spouse, but the dispatcher hears yelling in the background. This information is important to the officer, who must know the suspect is highly emotional.

Most consumers cannot. From the FCC:

In limited areas of the United States, however, it is now possible to use certain wireless telephone services to send a text message to 911. This means that in such areas, if you are unable to make a voice 911 call, you can type your message on your wireless phone and send it to a 911 operator. But even where text-to-911 is available, if you are able to make a voice call to 911, and if it is safe to do so, you should always make a voice call to 911 instead.

The four largest wireless telephone companies (AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon) have voluntarily committed to make texting to 911 available by May 15, 2014 in areas where the local 911 center is prepared to receive the texts.

By September 30, 2013, if you attempt to send a text to 911 where text-to-911 service is unavailable, you will receive an immediate "bounce-back" message that text-to-911 is not available and that you should contact emergency services by another means, such as by making a voice call or using telecommunications relay services (the latter for consumers who are deaf, hard of hearing, or have a speech disability).

For more information and/or updates regarding text-to-911, please visit http://www.fcc.gov/text-to-911.

Call the non emergency police, or go down to the station in your area and see if you can text, or how an emergency would be handled if someone deaf calls.

You might want to check with ADT to see if they can work with you. Otherwise, you can check with your local Life Line. Unfortunately, you need a land line for Life Line but they are working on adding cell phones to their service.