Dallas Police confirmed this week that a technical issue disrupted the city’s text-to-911 service, though officials say voice calls into 911 were not affected and that any messages received during the outage have since been identified and addressed. The department is now working to determine what caused the breakdown and to prevent it from happening again.
According to the Dallas Police Dept, the issue struck the text-to-911 system specifically, leaving voice-based emergency calls untouched. The department said it is working with technical partners to pin down the root cause and says its account is monitored around the clock, advising residents to call 911 directly for emergencies rather than relying on text. The department has not said how many people attempted to text 911 during the outage window.
The Dallas Police Department was recently made aware of a technical issue impacting the text to 9-1-1 service. Messages received during this period have been identified and addressed accordingly.This technical issue impacted individuals utilizing the text to 9-1-1 service and… pic.twitter.com/2M6Q3VgUGM
— Dallas Police Dept (@DallasPD) September 11, 2026
A Service Built for Those Who Can’t Call
The City of Dallas rolled out text-to-911 in March 2019, giving residents in dangerous situations, or those with hearing or speech impairments, a way to reach dispatchers without speaking on the phone, according to the City of Dallas. The North Central Texas Emergency Communications District, which coordinates 911 service across 14 counties surrounding Dallas-Fort Worth for roughly two million residents, was actually the first authority in Texas to launch text-to-911 back in 2013, per NCT9-1-1…