Emergency Management Meets 21st Century In NJ, Philly Soon
CAMDEN, N.J. (CBS) - Texting to 9-1-1 is the latest innovation in emergency management.
Camden County just unveiled its Text-to-911 system while Philadelphia is hoping to crank up a similar system.
"Text 9-1-1 is the new silent alarm," says Camden County Freeholder Jonathan Young.
Camden County had the grand reveal Thursday, but actually had the system up and running for months. Young says it's made a difference since mid-March:
"For domestic abuse where they can't physically make a phone call, they'll actually text it. And ironically, the day we launched it on the 13th and on the 14th, just by coincidence, we had a domestic 9-1-1 text that we were able to get there and save the woman and make an arrest."
Philadelphia's system is expected to be in place in about 18 months.