Text messaging for the Hard of Hearing is used in Northumbria
 
Mobile solutions specialist Dialogue Communications has provided a unique messaging service for Northumbria Police, to allow local deaf, hearing impaired and speech impaired residents to contact the police via text messaging. In the UK alone, there are almost 9 million deaf people and Northumbria Police is amongst the first to adopt this service.   
 
Using Dialogue’s web-based portal, Northumbria Police has set up this mobile facility, which will allow the hard of hearing to contact the police easily. Deaf people will no longer have to rely on someone else to report non-emergencies for them and can now text a predefined mobile number 0778 6200 815, which will be directly sent to the police control room and regularly checked.   
 
Superintendent Derek Scott, of Northumbria Police explains: “We hope the service will prove to be an effective means of reporting non-emergency incidents in our local area.  The mobile technology which is available to emergency services these days is rapidly expanding and we wanted to make the most of this. This demonstrates our commitment to providing the best service possible to all sections of the community.
 
”However, we would want to remind users that in an emergency situation they need to be able to contact the police via 999 if an immediate response is required."
 
The two-way SMS is a simple to use service whereby a text message is sent, it is then converted into an email and delivered to the police communications centre.  The caller then receives a return SMS within seconds to say their text has been passed to the police, who will reply to this enquiry within 24 hours, with a reminder if this is an emergency you must dial 999. Any further communication can be made via email, which is automatically converted to a text message and sent to the caller.
 
This latest service is yet another way of utilising Dialogue’s community text offering.  Guillaume Peersman, managing director of Dialogue UK said: “It is services like two-way messaging which can really prove beneficial to local communities.  Our mobile applications offer local services a new dimension, which perhaps they hadn’t considered, and because of the constantly increasing number of mobile users, it only makes sense to utilise the available technology in a positive way.”
 
With offices in London and Sheffield, Dialogue Communications is one of the UK’s fastest growing mobile service providers for interactive mobile solutions and SMS aggregation.