Gadgetory

at this California Highway Patrol communication center one of the state's busiest operators answer about 4911 daily and in the near future they'll respond to 911 text messages to starting on May fifteenth the four major wireless carriers 18 t Verizon Sprint and t-mobile are voluntarily making it possible to send a text message to emergency services but not everyone can text to 911 911 in your area must be able to handle the text messages and many aren't ready there were just a lot of technological hurdles underneath the surface that people don't think about all the time unlike phone calls to 911 which are basically given priority this text message is not given priority at this point while text to 911 will make a significant difference for the hearing and speech impaired and in situations where placing a call is dangerous 911 operators say calls provide information that text don't will get it to the officers that are out there that say you know this person is you know a crying screaming you know citizen we're not able to get much because they're under a lot of stress we have a location this is what's going on that we can hear in the background operators say callers rarely offer all the pertinent details initially and need to be prodded for more information you know for us it will be the street the cross street and address the city the county whatever information we can gather if it's a car will want the color make model license plate number which is why calling will remain the preferred way to contact 911 now in San Francisco I'm see me das cnet com for CBS News you