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Cleveland Police Launches Dynamic Text Service for Deaf CommunityAlderley Edge, 1st May, 2008 - In keeping with its "Putting People First" philosophy, Cleveland Police has now launched a dynamic text messaging service specifically for deaf, hard of hearing and speech-impaired people. The service has been designed and delivered by mobile messaging leader Mediaburst in conjuntion with partner Teleware and successfully piloted by Cleveland Police since January 2008 with deaf people in its jurisdiction. According to government statistics, over 9 million people in the UK are deaf or hard of hearing and over 250,000 are profoundly deaf. It is unknown how many live in the boroughs covered by Cleveland Police ... Hartlepool, Redcar & Cleveland, Middleborough and Stockton, which have a high population density of 9.3 people per hectare compared with the national average of 3.5. Until the mobile came along, and SMS with it, deaf and speech-impaired people had great difficulty in contacting emergency services by themselves. They had to rely upon family and friends to report life issues or social misbehaviours on their behalf. Today, the deaf community is one of the most prolific users of SMS. All that the deaf community in Cleveland Police's boroughs need do to report an incident or ask for assistance is to text the word Police to the dedicated shortcode 87202 giving their address and explanation of the problem. The message is automatically converted into email and forwarded to Cleveland's communication centre where incidents are recorded and actioned. "Mediaburst's text messaging service is a welcome and very dynamic solution for Cleveland's deaf community," says Mick Little, Acting Chief Inspector of Cleveland Police's Control Room. "For the first time, deaf people can interact with Cleveland Police in near real time." Cleveland Police has issued a leaflet explaining how to use the new text service and issued a warning that any misuse of the service by people that are neither deaf, hard of hearing or speech-impaired may be liable for prosecution under the Communications Act, 2003. The leaflet can be viewed at http://www.mediaburst.com/ClevelandPolice.jpg. About Mediaburst Mediaburst is an award-winning mobile messaging and interactive telephony company. Created in 2000, the company is today the trusted mobile campaign partner for advertising, marketing and media agencies and the preferred supplier of messaging solutions and aggregation for businesses, developers, and network operators. Mediaburst's interactive platform allows companies to automate communications with their audiences in a reliable, cost effective, and scalable manner. For more information, contact Hugh Paterson on 0845 050 0000, by email [email protected], or visit www.mediaburst.co.uk. ends As a community-building service, TMCnet allows user submitted content which is not always proofed by TMCnet editors. If you feel this entry is of inferior quality or wish to report it for some reason, please forward the URL to "webedit [AT] tmcnet [DOT] com" with your comments. |
