In 2025, the City of Columbus, Ohio, home to nearly 907,000 residents and one of the fastest-growing cities in the Midwest, became one of the first municipalities in their region to implement Video-to-911 and Text-to-911 Translation technologies. These advancements were part of a broader effort to modernize emergency communications, eliminate communication barriers, and better serve the city’s diverse, multilingual population.
Over the course of a partnership with Intrado spanning decades, Columbus has always been an innovative early adopter of public safety technology – a trend continuing here with real-time communication tools that are already improving call accuracy, response times, and community trust.
Addressing Communication Gaps: Removing Barriers When Seconds Count
The Columbus Emergency Communications Center (ECC) handles more than a million emergency and non-emergency calls each year. As the community has grown more diverse, so has the need for responsive, inclusive technology to assist residents in crisis, especially those who may struggle to communicate during an emergency.
“In an emergency situation it is absolutely crucial to remove communication barriers because seconds count in these situations.”
— Chris Mayfield, 911 Emergency Communications Center Manager, City of Columbus
Callers who are disoriented, injured, nonverbal, or non-English speakers have historically faced critical delays when trying to explain their situation. Columbus needed a way to bridge the gap between caller and dispatcher.
Partnering with Intrado: A Natural Next Step in ECC Innovation
The City of Columbus turned to Intrado, its long-time partner in public safety communications, to deploy two key technologies:
“If someone is willing to share their camera, we can send them a link from here in the ECC to their phone... it’s almost like a one-way FaceTime.”
— Shannon Basil, Emergency Call Taker
“The feature is... saving lives. In an emergency situation, you lose the word that you learn in another language. If you cannot express what is the emergency, the other party cannot help you.”
— Hassiba Makour, CEO, Advanced Technology Education
With support from Intrado’s implementation team, the ECC quickly trained call takers, updated protocols, and launched both features with confidence.
Lessons Learned
The ECC’s successful rollout of these features didn’t just come down to having the right technology, it was about training, trust, and collaboration.
“This project, it’s one of the steps to solve that problem. Thank you to the city for thinking about all those vulnerable community members who don’t speak English.”
— Blaise Balazire, Community Organizer
Looking Ahead
With both Video-to-911 and Text-to-911 Translation fully integrated into their ECC operations, the City of Columbus is already seeing improvements in accuracy, responsiveness, and public trust. They plan to continue using these tools to expand access and improve service for vulnerable and underserved populations. They’re also sharing their journey with other public safety agencies, becoming a resource for ECCs considering similar upgrades.
“The fact that the city is going above and beyond to incorporate these tools into what we do is going to help us communicate better with our citizens.”
— Shannon Basil, Emergency Call Taker
Columbus plans to share its insights with other agencies across the region and continue working with Intrado on next-generation safety technology.
Conclusion
Through their partnership with Intrado, the City of Columbus has taken meaningful steps to eliminate communication barriers in emergencies. By deploying Video-to-911 and Real-Time Text Translation they’re making emergency response more accurate, more inclusive, and more effective.
Intrado – Always there in an emergency.