Atchison County 911 Center is one of 30 out of 114 counties in the state of Missouri that are now set up to accept a text message as a form of help when victims can’t talk. In Atchison County, if you are in trouble and don’t want anyone to know you are contacting help, simply type in 911 and what your emergency is. Atchison County 911 Center will be able to communicate with you through texting.

Over the last year, director Rhonda Wiley has been working with all of the cellular phone carriers in the area to make sure that it will work with their systems. At this point, the 911 text system is working with all carriers except US Cellular.

What to expect when

you send a text to 911

A dispatcher will reply to you by text. Be sure to silence your ringtone if staying quiet is important to your safety. If your text to 911 fails to go through, you will receive a bounce-back message saying the service is not available and instructing you to make a voice call to 911.

Director Wiley also pointed out that having the option to text 911 opens the door for other uses, for example letting emergency services know you have a controlled burn or that there are cattle on the road. If you don’t provide enough information, they will call you. Having the 911 text option is a great added feature; however, it should NOT replace calling 911 and calls should still be used over text whenever possible.