If you need help but can’t safely speak on the phone or are unable to speak, use a mobile phone to send a text message to 911. Making a voice call is the best and fastest way to reach 911 operators. But you should text if:
- You’re deaf, hard of hearing, or have a speech disability
- You’re in a situation where it’s not safe to make a voice call to 9-1-1 for help
- You’re having a medical emergency and cannot speak on the phone
- Start a new text message on your mobile phone, and enter the number 911 in the “to” field
- Text the exact location of the emergency
- Briefly describe what kind of help you need, using full simple words
- Push the “send” button
- Respond to any questions
- Follow instructions
- If you’re driving, pull over when it’s safe. Do not text and drive!
It is the ability to send a "short message" (SMS) to 911. Texting during an emergency could be helpful if you are deaf, hard of hearing, or have a speech disability, or if a voice call to 911 might otherwise be dangerous or impossible. But if you can make a voice call to 9-1-1, and if it is safe to do so, you should always make a voice call to 9-1-1.
Similar to voice calls to 9-1-1, texts are routed to a 9-1-1 call center based on the location of the cell tower processing your text. In Coral Springs, the text should be received by the 9-1-1 call-takers in the Coral Springs Emergency Communications Center (ECC).
Yes. Text-to-911 location information is not equal to current voice call location technology. To get help, you need to provide your exact location.
This service has been enabled on all cell towers in the service area of Coral Springs, Coconut Creek and Parkland's 9-1-1 Center, as well as Broward County’s 9-1-1 center. If you send a text to 9-1-1 in an area where it is not supported, your wireless carrier should send you a “bounce back” message indicating that the service is unavailable.
If Text-to-911 is temporarily unavailable, you should receive a message indicating this, plus instructions on how to contact 9-1-1 by other means. If you do not receive any replies from 9-1-1, try to contact 9-1-1 another way.
No. In order to use Text-to-911, the mobile device you are texting from requires a mobile phone number with a wireless carrier that will allow the device to send and receive text messages. Remember, you can make a voice call to 9-1-1 using a wireless phone that does not have a service plan, but you cannot send a text message to 911 without a service contract that includes texting.
Text-to-911 is for use in an emergency only. If you accidentally send a message to 9-1-1, send a reply indicating that you have made a mistake, there is no emergency, and you are not in danger. Promptly answer any questions so we can determine that 9-1-1 is not actually needed. Intentional misuse of 9-1-1 is a punishable offense.
No. Photos, videos and graphical emojis cannot be sent to Coral Springs 9-1-1 at this time. Please use full, simple words in your text conversation to ensure understanding.
No. At this time, 9-1-1 can only receive text messages in English. While Coral Springs is able to conference in translation services for voice calls to 9-1-1, there is no such service currently available for text calls.
No. Messages sent to 9-1-1 cannot include other people. If you include 9-1-1 on a group text, it may not be received.
No, currently Smart911 only makes Safety Profiles available to our call-takers during a voice call to 9-1-1. Coral Springs has requested that Smart911 make this information available for all calls to 9-1-1, regardless of how they are received.