Dialing 911 is impossible for Refugio residents without a phone, no matter how great the emergency. This simple but troubling fact led the Refugio Police Department to seek out a solution. Rising temperatures was another catalysts for Police Chief Chris Brock to sign up for Secure the Call.

“In our regular patrols driving around the community and seeing people sitting on their porches, we wondered, what if something happens and they can’t get help,” Brock said.

Researching the problem, a cell phone recycling program was found to help the community. Secure the Call was developed in Detroit in 2003 as a way to recycle old cell phones. High school volunteers clean and “scrub” the phones for distribution to communities for use as 911 emergency-only phones.

The phones are given away free to senior citizens centers, battered women’s shelters and police and sheriff’s departments.

“We handed out three phones on Monday at the Adult Day Care across the street,” Brock said.

Donation barrels are set up at the PD, with plans to place one at Dollar General and H-E-B. Donations have already commenced.

“The phones are passed out with a charger and instructions,” he said.

The phones can’t be used to call friends and neighbors; they are simply for dialing 911 for emergency communications.

“We don’t just have a single house here and there without a phone,” Brock said. “We have full neighborhoods of no phones. It’s a luxury some people can’t afford. We hope to outfit every one of them with an emergency phone.”