911 Texting Coming To The Borderland

By the end of this year, El Pasoans will be able to text their emergencies to 911 in the event that they aren't able to place or voice their calls. The budget for this program was recently approved by the El Paso 911 District which has about 136 employees in the communications division and processes 1,100 to 1,600 calls. It's a service that's available to less than 20 percent of 911 districts in the country. The district is now developing the software and working with major companies like AT&T and T-Mobile.

The 911 District says that calling is always the best choice in an emergency, but should you find yourself in a situation where calling is not an option, texting 911 is your next best option. Jonathan Killings tells KFOX14 “It's particularly beneficial for those people in our hard of hearing or speech impaired community." But as with anything there is cause for concern like prank texts. Still the community seems optimistic for this service to be arriving in the Sun City.