“The more options you can give the community to reach out and get assistance, the better for everybody,” said Lt. Jennifer Hayes, Aiken Department of Public Safety, Public Information Officer. 

Emergencies aren’t always one size fits all.

“There’s always a limited number of dispatchers on duty at any given time, and if a large scale emergency or something was to come in, and they became overwhelmed and not able to keep up with the number of phone calls they were receiving, those texts could still come in.” said Lt. Hayes.