The Future of Emergency Calls Is Texting

In the future, Brits in need may be able to contact the emergency services via text.

A report released Wednesday by the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) has argued for the UK's 999 emergency call system (which is like 911 in the US) to be revamped for the digital age.

Figures from communications regulator Ofcom show that 95 percent of communications from 12-15-year-olds are text-based, and young people are statistically more likely to be victims of crime. IET therefore wants to offer young people the option of contacting their emergency services via text as opposed to voice call.

"The argument is that younger people are particularly familiar with using texts rather than making voice calls, but frankly many of us might prefer texts in certain situations," Professor Will Stewart, Chair of the IET's Communications Policy Panel, told me over the phone.

He gave the example of people who might want to text the police for help as opposed to call them upon discovering an intruder in their home, so as to communicate silently.

As the UK 999 emergency service call system was introduced in the late 1930s, Stewart said that it was time to update it to accommodate the needs of people who preferred communicating via texts and social media over voice calls.

The aim isn't to invent new technologies, but to tap into existing and emerging technological infrastructures. "We're not talking about a technological breakthrough," he told me.

One idea would be to allow people to text alerts to human operators via an app. The challenge, however, is making sure that there is a system in place that prioritises emergency texts.

The report prioritises the creation of a cross-platform, data-based emergency service that would make sure calls and messages are filtered better, allowing prank calls or texts that waste operator's time to be weeded out.

Stewart said an automatic software system could also scan texts to pick out user information (phone numbers and names) or allow emergency services to pinpoint a user's location based on their smartphone GPS.

The report suggests data stored on wearables used to monitor health conditions could also be a useful resource for emergency responders in the future—though we'd want to make sure this was hack-proof.

"The Apple watch monitors health situations; that sort of information could be very helpful to an operator in an emergency situation," said Stewart. "There's also discussion of a system whereby an operator would be able to turn on your camera so that she/he could see what was going on around you. In a situation where you were very distressed or injured that might be extremely helpful."

The goal, said Stewart, is to implement an holistic, universal emergency service.

"Much of the technology we need to update our emergency service is available today," he said in a press release. "But we need a shared, cross-party strategy to create a common and user-friendly interface for all service providers to connect to."