(Lawrenceville, Georgia) Call If You Can, Text If You Can’t. The Gwinnett County Police Department is proud to announce that as of June 1, 2020 we will now have Text to 911 capability.  The best, fastest, most reliable method to contact 911 in an emergency is to call and speak to a dispatcher but we recognize that there are times or situations that can make calling 911 difficult.  Our citizens will be able to send a text to 911 if they are unable to call. 

Text to 9-1-1 is intended primarily for use in three emergency scenarios:

• For an individual who is deaf, hard-of-hearing, or has a speech disability.
• For someone who is in a situation where it is not safe to place a voice call to 9-1-1.
• A medical emergency that renders the person incapable of speech.

You must subscribe to your wireless carrier’s text or data plan in order to make or receive text messages.  Unlike voice calls to 9-1-1, you cannot send a text message to 9-1-1 without a service plan. Also our citizens need to be aware that text messaging apps that only support texting with other app users or texting via social media are not required to support text to 9-1-1.