TOULON, Ill. – Stark County is now in the “21st century.”
That was the reaction of Sheriff Steve Sloan, after the county’s 911 service went online last week. County and Illinois State Police leaders marked the occasion in Toulon on Monday afternoon.
Prior to going online, Stark County was the last of the 102 counties in the state to not have the service.
The service was made possible by an intergovernmental agreement with Peoria County to help set up the service. David Tuttle, chair of the Peoria-Stark Emergency Telephone System board, says they’ve been working on getting the service running since 2021.
“After three years of work, mostly by the technical committee and the Peoria-Stark Emergency Telephone System board, and our employees, and without any consultants, the new Emergency Communications Center has been built,” Tuttle said.
Before 911 capabilities came to the rural county, residents had to dial a 10-digit number to get the service that they needed. For people outside of the county that did not know those numbers, their calls would be rerouted to 911 centers in neighboring counties, such as Peoria, Marshall, and Henry.
Sheriff Sloan says all of that will now be quicker with just three numbers to dial, and be taken by people who know Stark County.
“It’s great, because we can take the call, we know right where it’s coming from, and we can send our deputies and emergency personnel, fire departments, ambulance, and they know right where they’re going to go,” Sloan said.
Sloan says working with Peoria County has been “fantastic” because of the knowledge they brought in for 911.
Illinois State Police Director Brendan Kelly says it’s a “significant milestone” to get 911 in Stark County. It completes a mission assigned to ISP in 2015 to get 911 service in all counties.
“Every single community, whether it’s urban area, rural area, suburban area in this state, everybody should have access to 911, because that’s how they can be able to reach out to first responders when they need that assistance,” Kelly said. “Being able to have this in place means seconds are not wasted in trying to get people the help they need in Stark County.”
The county will have next generation 911 services, with the ability to use texts for 911 to come in the near future.
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