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Text-To-911 Service Now Available In Western Wayne County

WAYNE (WWJ) - Emergency 911 texting is being rolled out in Western Wayne County.

Beginning Friday, people with disabilities, the hearing impaired, and those with speech disorders will be able to more easily request help in an emergency through SMS (Short Messaging Service).

"It's just another way to keep our residents safe," said Westland Mayor William Wild, who serves as Chairman for the Conference of Western Wayne County.

"We think another example that this is going to be very convenient for is maybe in an instance of domestic violence, a kidnapping or maybe another situation where the victims need to make a call for help without tipping off a criminal," he said.

Wild stressed that you don't need an app or anything like that to take advantage of the text-to-911 system. All you need a data plan on your cell phone with Sprint, Verizon, T-Mobile or AT&T service.

The service is free of charge to the estimated 700,000 residents of Western Wayne County though a partnership with those four major carriers.

"As long as you're set up right now to send and receive text messages, you're good to go," Wild said. "All you have to do — just like you're going to send a text message — you put 911 in the (phone number) field and you hit send and you'll be connected very quickly to a dispatcher."

The 911 texting will work in all of the 18 communities that make up the western portion of Wayne County, from Dearborn west— including at Detroit Metro Airport.

(Members of the Conference of Western Wayne Communities are the cities of Belleville, Dearborn, Dearborn Heights, Garden City, Inkster, Livonia, Northville, Plymouth, Romulus, Wayne and Westland as well as Canton, Huron, Northville, Plymouth, Redford, Sumpter and Van Buren townships).

Wild said local communities will be working to get the word out about the new service to their residents in the days ahead.

The ability to text 911 isn't new to metro Detroit. Western Wayne County follows Oakland and Macomb counties which both put 911 texting systems into place last year.

It should be noted that the remaining area of Wayne County, including Detroit, does not yet offer text-to-911 service.

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