CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Charlotte-Mecklenburg dispatch centers are one step closer to implementing a statewide recommendation to provide 911 texting.
WCNC has learned that testing has begun on a new, enhanced 911 system for the county.
Around North Carolina, 117 primary 911 answering points have the ability to receive texts, but only 99 have completed the process to make it a reality.
Nationwide, barely a quarter of all call centers are equipped with the ability to receive 911 texts.
Advocates say it is time for 911 texting to be available everywhere.
On average, Americans send and receive 18 billion texts every day -- 541 billion texts every month, 6.5 trillion texts every year. But what if you needed to text 911?
"People witness things, they see things, they hear things, and they're not able to make a phone call," Cornelius PD Captain Jennifer Thompson said.
This is exactly why they implemented 911 texting in their dispatch center.
However, if you live in Mecklenburg County, the dispatch center at Cornelius is the only center accepting text messages sent directly to 911. If you're in Charlotte, a text to 911 will not go through to CMPD.
"It was time for us to do an upgrade to a platform that supported it," said Crystal Cody, the public safety technology director for the city of Charlotte.
Cody said this next generation of 911 communication has been a topic of conversation across public safety entities for at least five years.
For WCNC anchor Sarah French, 911 texting was first brought to her attention in 2009. At the time, she was living in Connecticut when her friend and colleague was killed hiding in a closet, texting friends to call 911 for her because she didn't want to be heard.
When moments felt like hours, the woman resorted to calling 911. That's when she was shot and killed. At the time, there was only one county in the country where you could send a text message directly to 911. Now 10 years later, it's finally available statewide in Connecticut.
Across the country, 911 texting is available in dispatch centers in almost every state except Alaska, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Mexico, Rhode Island and South Dakota.
There's still room for growth -- it's in only a fraction of the cities across the 146 counties in the Carolinas, including Cornelius. Cornelius has had limited 911 text-ability since 2015 when the North Carolina state 911 board recommended it.
So what's taking everyone else so long?
"Each center has to essentially work with the wireless carriers and work with their vendor for their 911 system in order to make text to 911 a reality for that specific center," Cody said.
North Carolina is working on creating the infrastructure to move all next-generation 911 services to one statewide digital platform to be shared by all public safety answering points by July 2021.
"I think it just provides another way for people to communicate with the police and to connect to us," Thompson said.
911 texting for all of Mecklenburg County should be available in the first quarter of 2020, so January at the earliest and March at the latest.