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Departments > Emergency Communications
History of Consolidated Dispatch
In the early 1970's, a Hillside, Illinois police officer was kidnapped and murdered by a group who had just committed an armed robbery. The officer, who was unaware of the robbery, stopped their vehicle for a routine traffic violation. He radioed the traffic stop to his dispatcher but, because of channel congestion from more than 40 towns operating on the frequency, was never heard. Local, state and federal government agencies then worked together to create smaller radio networks.
Oak Lawn Emergency Communications evolved from a single dispatch operation in the old police department located on Dumke Drive. The dispatchers punched time clocks and wrote everything out on cards. They served only the Oak Lawn police department for many years in a small room located just outside of the roll call room in the PD. You would have been hard pressed to find a single computer in the old center. Some of our veteran dispatchers refer to that era as “The Good Ole Days,” when life was simple, a little slower, and definitely a lot less complicated!
 In the early 90’s, the dispatchers moved to a new location in the Village Hall. With obvious plans to expand, the new center was state of the art at the time but they still conducted business on hand-written cards and paper maps.
In the late 90’s the 9-1-1 center acquired CAD (Computer Aided Dispatch) and that enabled them to input their 9-1-1 calls into a computer database. By the late 90’s we were also able to “see” our caller’s name and address when they dialed 9-1-1 from a residential or business phone. The center grew from a single agency dispatch center to a multi-jurisdictional 9-1-1 center. We now serve 8 fire departments, 4 police departments and about 160,000 residents.
 In order to address the growth of the center and aging equipment, another renovation began this past spring. Using the 9-1-1 surcharge funds that support our center, we were able to upgrade our phone system, radio system, and dispatch consoles. We also purchased an automated mapping system to aid the dispatchers in locating
9-1-1 callers on cellular phones.
The new 9-1-1 center is state of the art and equipped with all of the tools the dispatchers need to get the calls answered and police and fire dispatched.
Looking back over the years, we’ve come a long way in the 9-1-1 industry. From punch cards and paper to touch screen monitors and automated mapping; we’ve seen it all. Some of you may recall that years ago we didn’t even have 9-1-1 and had to rely on a 7-digit emergency number! Now we can plot a cellular call on a map using GPS coordinates and we are living through the evolution of internet phone service. There is talk that the next generation of 9-1-1 may include text messaging. The one thing that has remained constant however, is the talent behind the microphone; the men and women who work tirelessly to answer the calls for help; the dispatchers who are the unsung heroes in public safety.
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