(Dec. 1, 2017, 12:58 p.m.) -- Long Beach City Hall issued a press release and Mayor Garcia received L.A. media credit, but the truth is multiple L.A. County cities now allow one to send a text message to 911. It's a genuinely valuable upgrade that can be especially useful in situations where one may be fearful or unable to speak.
Guidelines include:
An interactive map from at this link shows the multiple cities and locations throughout L.A. County where one can text-to-911 (now including LB.) [Scroll down for further.] |
Below is LB City Hall's press release. [City of LB Dec. 1 press release] Beginning December 1, 2017, hearing and speech-impaired residents of Long Beach and those in situations where it is too dangerous to dial 9-1-1 for help in an emergency, can Text to 9-1-1. "Call if you can -- text if you can't" is the slogan developed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), that is currently being utilized by Long Beach and other cities in Southern California that are implementing this new technology.
[Ed. note/comment: If you're wondering why Mayor Garcia is quoted first (or quoted at all), it's because it's because LB City Hall follows a format (which has been in effect for many years reaching back to Mayors Foster and O'Neill) to quote the Mayor in nearly all City of Long Beach releases, regardless of whether they played a role in the subject matter of the release. It tends to get the then-incumbent Mayor quoted by some local news outlets that mechanically include material at the top of a press release even if, as is the case with this release, the Mayor doesn't really appear to have had any meaningful role in the subject matter of the release. In this case, city management (Reggie Harrison's office and LBPD likely did the heavy lifting to implement the system in LB. (Basic civics refresher: LB's Mayor has no policy setting power. Under the LB City Charter, he can voice his views on citywide issues but the Council sets policy.) We do recall one occasion on which LB's Mayor wasn't quoted at all in a City Hall release; it was when the City had to acknowledge that some LB yearly crime totals had increased; for that one, City Hall handed Chief Luna quoted space on that one.]
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