Text to 9-1-1 now available in St Clair County

St. Clair County 911 is pleased to announce another tool for citizens and visitors to reach our dispatchers during emergencies. This is in conjunction with the incredible upgrades to St Clair County 911 Dispatch center made possible by a grant from the State 9-1-1 Emergency Services Board, St Clair County is a part of the virtual consolidation project lead by Polk County Central Dispatch Director Sarah Newell. This project main purpose is to bring the counties of Hickory, Cedar and St Clair to Enhanced 9-1-1 status with the state of Missouri.

Text to 9-1-1 is now available in St Clair County. We urge the community to always call 911 when possible, but to use this service when that is not feasible.

The ability to text message dispatch will be beneficial in many situations.

Text to 9-1-1 provides deaf, hard of hearing, or speech impaired communities direct access to 9-1-1 services,

It also provides access to 9-1-1 in situations where safety would be compromised if a caller were speaking aloud, such as domestic violence, home invasions, or active shootings, for example. It also enables contact with dispatch when cellular service is too poor for voice calls.

This is a great service that we can now offer our citizens. Another benefit to our citizens or visitors that find themselves in areas where a phone call is impossible due to the cell coverage but a text message may be able to get though.

How to text 9-1-1 when you are having an emergency:

To text 911, create a new text message

Enter “911” into the ‘To” field. No dashes

In this text message, include the following with location being the highest importance.

Location of the emergency (including city/name of business/park/fishing access/trailhead/lake docks ect..

The nature of the emergency

Your name

Keep the text message short, simple, with no abbreviations

Remain in close contact with your phone and be prepared to answer questions and follow instructions from the dispatcher

Some degree of cellular reception is required to send text to 9-1-1

If any other recipients are included in the 9-1-1 text, the text message may not be received

If you do not receive an initial response from the dispatcher, then contact 9-1-1 by call.

Do NOT text while driving.

Do NOT text 9-1-1 if you are NOT having and emergency. This service is for emergencies only.