| In this article we're going to discuss the people | | | | time, announced plans to build the first 911 |
| responsible for what is now our emergency call | | | | system in Huntington, Indiana. The President of |
| system known as 911. | | | | Alabama Telephone, a man by the name of Bob |
| Actually, the first system in being to dial in case | | | | Gallagher, was annoyed that the independent |
| of emergency was used in Great Britain in 1937. | | | | phone industry had not been informed of this |
| In Great Britain the citizens there could dial 999 to | | | | decision and consulted as to their thoughts so he |
| either call for the police, medical assistance or the | | | | decided to get the jump on AT&T and built the |
| fire department in case of fire. This could be done | | | | first emergency service in Haleyville, Alabama. |
| from anywhere in the country by anyone owning | | | | Gallagher got together with his state inside plant |
| or leasing a standard telephone. No special | | | | manager, Bob Fitzgerald, who told Gallagher that |
| equipment was needed. It wasn't until 1958 that | | | | he could go ahead with his plans. Gallagher then |
| the American Congress first investigated the | | | | quickly went to get approval from Continental |
| possibility of a universal emergency number for | | | | Telephone and the commissioner of Alabama |
| the United States. Finally, in 1967, a legal mandate | | | | Public Service and then put out a press release on |
| for this action was passed. | | | | February 9 to announce that the Alabama phone |
| The very first 911 call placed in the United States | | | | company would be making history. |
| was on February 16, 1968 in Haleyville, Alabama | | | | Fitzgerald went ahead and looked at all 27 |
| made by the Alabama speaker of the house | | | | Alabama exchanges and chose the Haleyville |
| Rankin Fite. The call was answered by | | | | location. He then engineered new circuitry and |
| Congressman Tom Bevill. There was no actual | | | | made the necessary modifications needed for the |
| emergency. The call was simply done as a test of | | | | existing equipment. Fitzgerald and his whole team |
| the system itself. | | | | worked around the clock and got the new 911 |
| The difficulty in instituting the system was that | | | | system up and running in under a week. The |
| the three numbers had to be three numbers that | | | | team was actually doing double duty at the time, |
| were not in use anywhere in the United States, | | | | working their regular day jobs and then traveling |
| neither as the first three digits of a phone | | | | to Haleyville at night to complete the project. |
| number, nor as any of the individual states' area | | | | They did this at off peak hours so as not to |
| codes. This had to also be true for all phone | | | | interfere with normal operations. The project was |
| numbers in Canada as well. On top of that, the | | | | completed on February 16, 1968 at exactly 2 PM. |
| numbers had to be easy to use and remember. | | | | Eye witness accounts of the event say that |
| The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) along with | | | | when the work was finally completed the whole |
| American Telephone And Telegraph (AT&T), | | | | work team shouted, in unison, "Bingo!". |
| which had a monopoly on phone services at the | | | | |