For anyone unable to call 911, the Barren-Metcalfe Emergency Communications Center is now allowing residents of the two counties to send texts for help.

Chris Freeman, the center’s director, said the dispatch’s new text-to-911 capabilities are intended for situations where making a call is either impossible or unsafe.

“The preferred method is still to call,” he said. “It’s just for situations where it’s not practical to call, like if you need to hide or if you can’t speak.”

The rule of thumb is “call if you can, text if you can’t,” he said.

According to Freeman, dispatchers can gain a lot more information from a call because other details will be audible in the call beyond the words being said.

“We lose a lot of meaning from the conversation if we don’t have human interaction,” he said. “We lose the tone of voice … and background noise.”

Freeman said dispatchers will be able to text to people seeking help to get more information.

A news release from the Communications Center said the dispatch can be reached by typing “911” into the field for a phone number. Texting should be done through the cellphone’s text messaging service rather than a third-party texting application, the release said.

On Thursday, the Communications Center officially announced the text-to-911 service.

At the Communications Center, Peyton Dickson, 11, of Barren County, sent the first text, which read “Testing system,” to the dispatch to commemorate the beginning of the program’s availability.

According to the news release, Dickson was chosen through a social media campaign conducted by the Communications Center to promote text-to-911.

Glasgow Mayor Harold Armstrong, who attended the event, said he considers text-to-911 to be a useful new addition to the Communications Center’s capabilities.

“I think it’s a great addition to our 911 center and I think it’s a great benefit to our citizens and the citizens of Metcalfe County,” he said.

Armstrong said the service could be vital for people dealing with violence in the home or at school by giving them a tool to call for help without giving away their location.

“I just think it shows our attention to progressing and our attention to addressing our citizens’ needs,” he said.

Freeman said he’s been interested in establishing text-to-911 for roughly a year. After the Marshall County High School shooting last January, Freeman wanted to provide local people with a quieter way to reach out for help, he said.

“After the school shooting in Marshall County, it just weighed on me,” he said.

According to Freeman, he brought the idea to the dispatch’s governing board at their next meeting, which was in March 2018, and has been working on providing text-to-911 service ever since.

The service is provided through a contract with INdigital, a company that provides services to public safety answering points across the country.