LANSING, Mich. — Starting on Wednesday, some residents in mid- and southwest Michigan will receive text message updates from the Michigan State Police when they make an emergency call to a dispatch center. The Michigan State Police will be the first-state level police agency in the country to test out this technology.
The pilot program involves the Michigan State Police Lansing and Marshall posts. It will also include Eaton, Branch, Calhoun and St. Joseph counties.
If you are in those four counties and call 911 from a mobile device to request a police response, and a trooper is dispatched, you will receive a text message notifying you that a trooper is en route. However, not all call types will receive this messaging, including sensitive safety matters. If the trooper becomes delayed due to other priority calls or circumstances, you will receive real-time updated text notifications.
"Kind of keep them updated on how long," MSP Lt. Rene Gonzalez told FOX 17 Tuesday. "There's sometimes where there [won't] be a trooper to their house for an hour. So this gives them kind of an idea for when we're going to show up. And, in the event that the trooper is pulled away for a more serious call, they are going to receive an update as well to let them know that they may be waiting a little bit longer."
After the conclusion of the incident, you will receive a text message within 24 hours, which invites you to take a short satisfaction survey. The feedback from the survey will be used to recognize good customer service, provide insights into areas that can be improved, and guide decision making to improve customer service.
"We're hoping to give better service to the community," Lt. Gonzalez added. "We're hoping to give them real-time updates on where we're at, how long before we will be there and...we're trying to provide better service to the community."
The pilot program will be evaluated after 90 days, where consideration will be given on whether to purchase and deploy this technology to all Michigan State Police posts.
“Utilizing technology to provide our customers with real-time updates and seek their feedback on our service delivers on our commitment to modern policing,” said Col. Joe Gasper, director of the Michigan State Police. “We strive to provide the best customer service experience to each person we interact with and by using automatic text message notifications and satisfaction surveys, we’ll be able to not only provide better customer service, but also make adjustments based on direct customer feedback.”
