New text messaging to police for those unable to phone

Mar 24 2008 by The Journal

POLICE have introduced a new text messaging service for deaf people and those with hearing and speech impairments to help record non-emergency incidents. The Northumbria force is one of the first in the UK to introduce the service.

It means deaf people will no longer have to rely on someone else to report non-emergencies for them and can now text a mobile number – 0778 620-0815 – which will connect with the police control room.

The caller receives a return text within seconds to say their text has been passed to the police, who will reply to their inquiry within 24 hours, with a reminder if it is an emergency to dial 999.

Further communication can be made via email, which is automatically converted to a text and sent to the caller. Police last night said they hoped the new service, provided by Sheffield company Dialogue Communications, would improve services but stressed that emergencies should still be reported to 999.

Superintendent Derek Scott, of Northumbria Police communications department, said: “We
hope the service will prove to be
an effective means of reporting non-emergency incidents in our local area.

“The mobile technology which is available to emergency services these days is rapidly expanding and we wanted to make the most of this.

“This demonstrates our commitment to providing the best
service possible to all sections of the community.” Dialogue UK managing director Guillaume Peersman said: “It is services like two-way messaging which can really prove beneficial to local communities.

“Our mobile applications offer local services a new dimension, which perhaps they hadn’t considered, and because of the constantly increasing number of mobile users, it only makes sense to utilise the available technology in a positive way.”