Everyone hopes to live their entire life without having to call 911. However, with over 600,000 calls to 911 daily in the United States, chances are you will need to do so at some point.
When calling 911 from a VoIP phone (in most UW-Madison-owned buildings), the dispatchers at the UW-Madison Police Department will answer the call. If you call 911 from your cell phone or any other non-campus landline, the Dane County 911 Center will answer the call.
One of the most important things to remember when calling 911 is to provide as much location information as possible — and stay on the line until the dispatcher tells you it’s okay to hang up. Officers are also sent to attempt to locate callers for 911 hang-up calls and open lines.
If you are in a situation where you do not feel safe speaking on the phone, text-to-911 is an option. Text-to-911 is not available everywhere, but it is available in Dane County. If texting 911 is not an option for you, you can still make a voice call and use discretion to relay information to the dispatcher.
Tips for Contacting 911 by Text
The Dane County 911 Center accepts text calls to 911 from all major wireless carriers. To use the service, simply type 911 in the “To” field on your cell phone (no spaces or dashes). The call will be directed to the Dane County 911 Center, which will notify UWPD a response is necessary on campus.
It is still better to call 911 if at all possible — but if you do need to send a text, here are a few things to keep in mind:
- Although deactivated cell phones can still CALL 911, they cannot TEXT 911 – you must have a texting plan to use the service.
- Provide your location FIRST! Cell phone location information is not exact, and it is critical to get your location information to the dispatcher first.
- Keep your message clear and brief, but do not use text abbreviations or slang – this may lead to confusion and could delay the emergency response.
- Depending on your location, similar to voice cell 911 calls, the message may “bounce” to a 911 center that does not take text messages. If this happens, you will get a message indicating text-to-911 is not available. This will also happen if your phone is roaming in Dane County.
- There is no foreign language translation on text-to-911 messages.
- Currently, photos and videos cannot be sent via text-to-911.
- Only send the message to 911; do not include any other recipients.