Iowa 911 Call Center now accepting Text Messages

As a self pro­fes­sed geek, I am all over the inc­lu­sion of new tech­no­logy in every­day life.  I per­so­nally feel that anything that can sim­plify life is just a great thing.

But I was abso­lut­ley stun­ned when I heard that Water­loo, Iowa has star­ted to imple­ment the abi­lity to con­tact 911 over text mes­sa­ges.  This has so many flaws in my eyes that it truly out­weighs the pos­si­ble good.

They claim that the text feau­tre is being added for the follo­wing rea­sons: Trying to incor­po­rate the new tech­no­logy into daily func­tions, to make con­tac­ting 911 easier for the deaf or hard of hea­ring resi­dents, or to quickly send for help in the event of a kid­nap­ping.  All noble rea­sons but…

Kno­wing the fea­ture is there, how long do you think it will before someone or group of peo­ple decide to con­ti­nually bom­bard the 911 cen­ter with fake texts as a prank, the amount of time it will take for someone that is really not com­for­ta­ble sen­ding text mes­sa­ges to tell them where they are loca­ted, the length of time in gene­ral to find out the per­sons rea­son for con­tac­ting 911.

Accor­ding to MSNBC’s article:

For now, only subsc­ri­bers to i wire­less, a local carrier affi­lia­ted with T-Mobile USA, will be able to use the ser­vice, and only within Black Hawk County. Those on other carriers will get a reply saying they need to call 911 instead.

There is something wrong with that idea also, they have clai­med (also in the same article) that the rea­sons they are doing this is to make it easier on some of it’s resi­dents in need.  I guess not all of them.

Tech­no­logy is a won­der­ful thing, if used in a well thought out and desig­ned man­ner.  But using tech­no­logy just for technology’s sake is just a waste.

I would like to hear your thoughts on the mat­ter.  If you feel I am wrong, please tell me I am wrong and why.

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