Lakewood Residents Can Now Text 911 In An Emergency

LAKEWOOD, OH — Lakewood residents can now text '911' in an emergency. The new program was put in place locally with the help of Cuyahoga County and the 9-1-1 Association.

Phone calls will continue to be Lakewood Dispatch's primary form of communication. However, texting could help save someone that isn't able to make a call.

Here's how the system works: Instead of calling "911" residents can type 9-1-1 into their message recipient box on their texting screen. Once the message is sent, it will go to the Cuyahoga County Emergency Communications System. The resident will then get a text message asking where the emergency is located. If the resident responds with a Lakewood location, then Lakewood Emergency Dispatch will be notified.

The city said that while the texting system is now available, residents are still encouraged to call 911 in an emergency.

Cuyahoga County first rolled out its emergency texting platform in June 2017. County officials emphasized, at the time, that while the texting platform would help save lives, it could not replace phone calls.

“If you can call, you have to call. That's imperative," said Mary Louise Madigan, director of communications for Cuyahoga County, told News 5 at the time. "We’re not adding dispatchers. We’re just trying to have another tool available in the case of an emergency.”

Only about 1,000 of the 6,000 emergency dispatch centers in the U.S. accept text messages, the FCC said. Here's a video from the agency discussing the details of the text-to-911 system.

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