Dedication ceremony at Tri-Com with Mayors Brown, Spriet, Wood, and Tri-Com Board Chairman Bob Popeck.

In 1974, the cities of Batavia, Geneva, and St. Charles applied for and were awarded a federal and state grant to combine each city’s public safety communication center in a single answering point. With that came the decision to implement the new 9-1-1 telephone system for the Tri-Cities, and on July 4, 1976, our nation’s 200th anniversary — (Editor’s note to young people: See the movie “Rocky” for more information.) — the 9-1-1 system at Tri-Com Central Dispatch was born.

The system implemented in 1976 was known as “Basic 9-1-1.” Later, in 1991, Tri-Com upgraded that system to “Enhanced 9-1-1,” adding wireless or cellular 9-1-1 service in 1994, and text to 9-1-1 service in 2016.

News photo showing the cooperation of Illinois Bell Telephone and the Tri-Cities police, fire and EMS services.

Technology continues to be on the move, and it is expected that 9-1-1 service in the state of Illinois in the next five years will switch from traditional telephone service to (IP) Internet Protocol.

Tri-Com was located in the Geneva Public Safety Building for 29 years and moved to its own facility in St. Charles where it has been located since 2005. Tri-Com now serves the villages of Elburn, Sugar Grove, the North Aurora Fire Protection District, and the Waubonsee College Campus Police in addition to the original Tri-Cities.

A single three-digit telephone number to aid the public in getting emergency police, fire, or ambulance assistance actually dates back to the telephone system installed in Great Britain in 1937, but it wasn’t until the “President’s Commission On Law Enforcement” completed its report in 1967 that a three digit emergency telephone number was suggested for the United States, and later in 1968 AT&T assigned 9-1-1 to be that number.

Tri-Com was among the first of what is termed as a consolidated communication center, and was the very first consolidated communication center in the nation to implement the 9-1-1 system.

• Feature Photo Caption: Ribbon cutting to open Tri-Com, July 4, 1976, with Mayors Bob Brown, Burt Wood and Ed Spriet.

(Above) News article announcing the implementation of Tri-Com and the 9-1-1 telephone system.