Text-to-911 planning and implementation is underway in Oregon and Southwest Washington, and should be available throughout Oregon in the next 24 months. The Portland-Metropolitan Region implemented an interim pilot project to receive text-to-911 messages, and after months of successful testing, went live on August 23, 2016.

The National Emergency Number Association slogan is “Call if You Can, Text if You Can’t,” which means calling should still be the primary method for reaching a Public Safety Telecommunicator. Text-to-911 should be used  by those who are unable to speak during an emergency, such as persons who are deaf, hard of hearing, have a speech impediment, or who are unable to verbally communicate safely. This service is free, and is a text-only service.

For more information, please visit the Text-to-911 website.