Boulder County residents now have access to Text-to-9-1-1 service

All dispatch centers throughout the county are enabled for this service

Boulder, Colorado - Boulder County has introduced Text-to-9-1-1 service in all communities within the county as of Thursday, Oct. 8. This new service allows residents to text dispatch during an emergency. Text-to-9-1-1 is supported by all four 9-1-1 dispatch centers in the county which connect callers to public safety response agencies including police, fire, emergency medical services and other rescue teams.

Text-to-9-1-1 service is enabled on the four major cell phone carriers in our area: AT&T (Cricket), Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon. All other smaller carriers should be enabled for texting within the next six months. If your carrier does not support 9-1-1 texting at this time, or if you are in a location that cannot send/receive text messages, you will receive a bounce back message. Regular text message rates will apply with this service.

Using the Text-to-9-1-1 service is only recommended if it is the only option and making a voice call to 9-1-1 is not possible. Remember to Call If You Can, Text If You Must. Some situations where this would be appropriate include:

• A caller reporting an emergency is hard of hearing, deaf or speech-impaired
• Voice connectivity is unavailable, but texts can be sent – this is true in some mountain areas
• Situations when silence is of the utmost importance for your safety– instances of intrusion, abuse or other dangerous situations in which making a phone call would escalate the emergency 

If a resident does need to send a text, it should be simple, brief and concise and should not use abbreviations. No photos or videos can be sent via text to 9-1-1 at this time. Unlike with phone calls, dispatchers will not automatically receive location information. For this reason, if it is necessary to send a text message it is important to include an accurate location or address in the message as quickly as possible.

Boulder County 9-1-1 dispatch centers can receive and reply to Text-to-9-1-1 messages but they cannot initiate a text message conversation.

For more information, visit the Boulder County Sheriff's Office, the City of Boulder Police Department,  the City of Longmont Department of Public Safety or the University of Colorado at Boulder Police Department webpages. More details and an informational video are available online.