You might soon be able to send a text to report a 911 emergency.

The Orange County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously in favor of updating the county’s 911 system at Tuesday night’s meeting in Hillsborough.

Jim Groves, the director of emergency services in Orange County, said the system will allow users to send text messages.

“This system would support text, and in the future, video to 911 for those callers that can’t, either due to their immediate circumstance or danger, make that phone call,” said Groves.

The next generation 911 system, as it’s being called, carries a price tag of almost $1.6 million, which will be paid over the next five years.

That money will come from the North Carolina 911 Board Emergency Telephone Fund.

Each phone has a 911 service fee of 50 cents or a dollar each month. All that money goes to the North Carolina 911 Board. The board then distributes money to Orange County 911 and other centers across the state.

Groves said implementation of this new system must be accompanied by a strong public relations campaign.

“We educate the public on how this thing will work and can work,” said Groves. “But more importantly, (we educate the public) so that the system doesn’t get abused or misused.”