Residents of Streator and Livingston County can now send text messages to 911 in an emergency. (AP/Kiichiro Sato)Residents of Streator and Livingston County can now send text messages to 911 in an emergency. To use the service, residents simply text 911, starting the message with the location of the emergency and whether they need police, fire or medical services. A public safety telecommunicator will respond, but people should be ready to answer questions as they would in a phone call with 911. Also, there’s a chance text messages may take longer to receive, arrive out of order or fail to be delivered.