In an effort to beat the troublesome 911 telephone system, the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company in collaboration with the Police Force will soon launch an emergency short messaging service, which would allow citizens to report crimes via text messages.
The service would be launched on March 1.
Public Relations Officer of the Guyana Police Force, John Sauers said that the force has collaborated with GT&T in the creation of what is referred to as an Emergency-Short Messaging Service (E-SMS)
Sauers said that the arrangement would provide an alternative medium of text messaging to be used by members of the public to inform the police of an emergency. Sauers asserted that the E-SMS service would not replace the current 911 telephone system.
The introduction of the service was one of the many initiatives that was discussed at the just concluded police officers’ conference and received approval.
In a statement GT&T said that it was happy to announce the initiative, which came about after discussions with the Commissioner of Police (acting) Henry Greene.
The telephone company proposed the initiative and Greene readily accepted it.
The system design and installation, which included a donation of a computer to be housed at the Police Communications Centre, Eve Leary, have now been completed and the launch date is set for March 1, 2007. GT&T said that the E-SMS service would allow persons who subscribe to mobile cellular SMS origination service to send text messages to the Police Emergency Call Centre to report an emergency or to request assistance. The subscriber will simply enter a brief message with the pertinent information [e.g. location, nature of emergency, etc.] then enter 911 plus the letters SEND, GT&T said in its statement. The statement added that like a 911 emergency call, the E-SMS will be offered free of cost. However, the general public is cautioned that the Emergency 911 service remains the primary medium for reaching the Police in times of an emergency and the only emergency facility that GT&T has a license obligation to provide. The E-SMS constitutes an alternative medium suggested by the Commissioner of Police given his concern for public safety, the phone company said.
To sign-up for access to the E-SMS subscribers will have to sign the appropriate service agreement form, which is available at GT&T’s Business Offices. Persons are encouraged to sign the agreement since they will otherwise be denied access to the E-SMS facility even though they may be able to send a normal short message.