For tech-savvy residents in Issaquah and Sammamish, Internet communication technologies like texting, video conferencing and camera phones are tools used in everyday life.

The popularity of these tools, however, has yet to permeate one of the state’s premier public safety programs: The 911 emergency response system.

And if getting lapped by the new technology wasn’t bad enough, the people who run the system say if changes aren’t made in Olympia soon, the very funding source that the emergency system depends on won’t foot the bill.

Calls made to 911 still go at some point through a much older communications system that is based on copper or fiber optic wiring, limiting capability and response times.

The current system, called “Enhanced 911” (E911) has the ability to correctly route an emergency call to the appropriate public safety answering point (PSAP) and to provide the location information associated with the telephone number calling 911. There are 12 PSAPs in King County, including one in Issaquah.

But the PSAPs can’t receive text messages, streaming videos or video files, pictures from cell phones or electronic information from safety devices such as GM’s OnStar.

In getting emergency information to dispatchers as quickly as possible — where seconds can be the difference between life and death — the upgrade in 911 capabilities is crucial.

The good news is King County is well on it’s way to creating an IP system that can implement NextGen 911 after it tested the system last year.

Marlys Davis, who is the county’s E911 program manager and part of a larger effort to update these systems to NextGen911 technology, says the plan is to migrate the 911 system to IP by the end of next year.

The bad news is the fact that everyone else is also moving away from landline and even wireless communication and jumping to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology.

The 911 system depends on taxes assessed on landline and wireless phones.

Davis says the number of those phone subscribers are dropping in favor of VoIP services from companies such as Comcast and Vonage. VoIP systems are not subject to 911 taxes.

She is imploring legislators in Olympia to extend the tax to cover VoIP calls and in addition to raise taxes 25 cents on existing phone lines (up from 70 cents) to both pay for the new system while continuing to temporarily support the old one. If they don’t get the tax hike, Davis said cuts to 911 such as reducing the number of lines and the accuracy of locations provided by wireless were likely.

“There will be impacts to the quality of service,” she said.

That shouldn’t be allowed to happen — especially not in Issaquah, which has embraced technology such as mobile reporting in equipping public safety personnel.

And across the country, public safety agencies have already shifted to an IP-based system. One PSAP, based in Waterloo, Iowa, has already implemented the system and has the capacity to begin implementing NextGen911 technology now.

National news of the Iowa call center’s capabilities this summer had Olympia sufficiently worried enough to issue a press release stating that 911 cannot receive texted calls for help.

It’s imperative that King County do the same.