Case Studies

Northumbria Police
Solution: Northumbria Police Hard of Hearing Service

Text messaging technology from Dialogue Communications has helped Northumbria Police open up a new channel of communication for its deaf, hearing impaired and speech impaired residents. Northumbria Police was one of the first forces in the country to adopt text messaging technology, which allows residents to report non-emergencies via SMS.

In the UK alone, there are almost nine million deaf people and using Dialogue’s web-based portal, Northumbria Police has set up a mobile facility, which will allow the hard of hearing to contact the police easily without having to rely on someone else to report non-emergencies for them.

Two-way SMS is a simple to use service whereby a text message is sent to a predefined mobile number, which is then converted into an email and delivered to the police communications centre. The caller receives a return SMS within seconds to say that their text has been passed to the police, who will then reply to the enquiry within 24 hours. The return SMS is also accompanied by a reminder that if this is an emergency 999 must be dialled.

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.”

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