Tuesday, August 16, 2011

911 to accept text messages, pictures, and video


The FCC announced a five-step plan to ultimately support acceptance of "emergency-related voice, text, data, photos, and video." But first, they plan to enable automatic retrieval of location data.


The benefits of this plan are profound. Suppose hostage victims are able to text but not make a phone call. Rather than having to send a text to a friend or family member to have it relayed, they can correspond directly with 911 - even sending pictures and videos of what is happening inside.

To take it a step further, what does it do to trial evidence? 911 phone calls are usually admissible under the present sense exception to the hearsay rule. Would multimedia messages including pictures and video be admitted as "a statement describing or explaining an even or condition made while the declarant was perceiving the event or condition, or immediately thereafter?" (FRE 803(1)).

Several local 911 programs already accept text messages such as Chicago and Black Hawk County, Iowa.

The FCC's press release is available here.

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