SUMMIT COUNTY, Ohio (WOIO) - Since October, the option to text 911 in Summit County has saved lived in unbelievable ways.

"We had a person reporting a domestic violence incident. They're riding in the vehicle with this person and can't call 911 to say this person just beat me up. They're sitting right next to them," said Mike Banks, the 911 Computer Aided Dispatch Administrator for Summit County.

The system is meant for people who can't call 911 because they don't want to be found out. Or they have a speech or hearing impairment.

It's a way for people to quickly reach 911.

"One was a person that was in their upstairs bedroom and thought there was an intruder in the house and that's the type of situation where you don't want to make a voice call and be overheard by the person that's inside the house," said Banks.

The following are DOs and DON'Ts for the community to remember if they text 9-1-1:

It's a text-based system. So things like emojis, images and videos cannot be transmitted through that, but perhaps in the future that will become available as the technology catches up.

Make sure you report your location. We can track where the calls are coming but it's still important to share location because the accuracy may not be perfect.

Especially if you're in a multi-story building, a school, or a shopping center, that message may take 5 to 10 seconds to go through at first.