In what state did 9-1-1 originate and implement first?

Answer 1

For the implementation of the specific US emergency telephone number 911 : Alabama on Feb.16, 1968.

The origin of 911 was national :

"The push for the development of a nationwide emergency telephone number came in 1957 when the National Association of Fire Chiefs recommended a single number to be used for reporting fires. In 1967 the President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice recommended the creation of a single number that can be used nationwide for reporting emergencies. The burden then fell on the Federal Communications Commission, which then met with AT&T in November 1967 in order to come up with a solution."

"In 1968, a solution was agreed upon. AT&T had chosen the number 911, which met the requirements that it be brief, easy to remember, dialed easily, and that it worked well with the phone systems in place at the time. How the number 911 itself was chosen is not well known and is subject to much speculation. However, many feel that the number 911 was chosen to be similar to the numbers 2-1-1 (long distance), 4-1-1 (information, later called "directory assistance"), and 6-1-1 (repair service), which had already been in use by AT&T since 1966. Also, it was necessary to ensure that the 9-1-1 number was not dialed accidentally, so 9-1-1 made sense because the numbers "9" and "1" were on opposite ends of a phone's rotary dial."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9-1-1#Development_of_9-1-1

But the idea of an emergency telephone number was realized first in London on 1937-06-30 : 999.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_telephone_number#History_of_emergency_services_numbers

Answer 2

This is a nation-wide program developed by the Federal Communications Commission and AT&T. The first call was placed in Alabama by the then Speaker of the House Rankin Fite in 1968. In 1999, President Clinton signed a bill designating 911 as a nationwide emergency service.

Answer 3

a state of emergency

Answer 4

Here's what I found (first website listed below) (But to give you the answer upfront, it was alabama who made the first 911 call...that's in the third answer/third website cited under references.)

Background on the Development of 911

In May 2003 we received e-mail from John, who said he was a staffer with Alaska Sen. Ernest Gruening during the period 1967-1968, when the 911 number was first conceived. He included an account that we had not heard of before. Some of his recollections are verified by documents we've posted, but others are not. Here is the e-mail he sent us:

I read with interest the various theories on how 911 was chosen for the nationwide emergency number in the US. The ones posted on your site are interesting, but not correct. What happened was the following.

One of the staff members of Senator Ernest Gruening has taken leave to go on a summer trip in Europe in the summer of 1966. Flying first into London, he noticed that the English had implemented a 999 nationwide emergency number which struck the staffer as a good idea. He simply filed it away in his memory, finished his summer in Europe and returned to Washington back on the Senator's staff.

Then one morning he overheard another of the Senator's staff talking to the Senator in Juneau [Alaska] (where he was running for reelection in 1968, though the date of the conversation may actually have been 1967) and the Senator said that he had to give a speech that night in Juneau and did anyone have an idea for a topic? This jogged the staffer's memory and he said "why don't we introduce a bill to establish a nationwide 911 emergency number?"

The Senator thought that was a great idea and kicked off the idea with a speech that night in Juneau. The reason 911 was picked was also simple. At the time (and this you can check) in the Washington area there was 211 for time and weather (long since dead now) and 411 for information (which still exists). So he naturally borrowed the 9 from the British 999 system and simply added the 11 to match the other already existing and simple to remember numbers.

If you research around this time, you will find the following:

1. that Senator Gruening introduced a "sense of Congress" resolution on the matter and held widely attended hearings as a subcommittee chairman. This is a matter of public record which you could find.

2. Time Magazine had an editorial on the subject around the same time, essentially calling it a great idea, but that they thought that people would continue to simply dial "O" for operator and yell for help. How wrong they were.

3. The matter also got wide coverage on the national news shows at the time, which you could also probably find if you researched.

4. What you can't find (and they wouldn't admit) was that ATT was actually initially opposed to the idea for cost reasons. Their lobbyist called the Senator's office and essentially said "what are you guys doing to us? Do you know how much it will cost to reprogram our computers to do this? 50 million dollars." He was told that he had better tell ATT to add a nickel to everyone's phone bills each month to pay for it then, because the Senator had huge support in cosigners from both houses of Congress and ATT was the only one that didn't like the idea.

No money was appropriated for the effort, by the way, because it was right in the middle of both the Vietnam War and the Great Society legislation and none was around. That was why the sense of Congress resolution was used, giving Congress' view on what should be done, but leaving the initiative to the states and municipalities, which is still, I believe, how it is run today.

[unsigned]

In response to this e-mail, we sent back a reply asking for more information, and received the following response:

The reason for the presidential commission report was due to the obviously good politics that emanated from the idea, which as I mentioned in my email was the reason it began in the first place. It was hard to imagine anyone being against the idea (which even ATT recognized pretty early after it was introduced). The Senator was simply looking for a speech idea that night in Juneau and the rest was serendipity (as politics frequently is). Also, it is important to remember the context of the time. The Vietnam War was in full thrust as was the Great Society legislation. The two ate up all the available Federal government resources, which is why the sense of Congress route was chosed instead of direct funding. Money was simply not available.

There were also some surprises. We thought at the time that the idea would probably die of its own accord after it was introduced, due to lack of funding. The first surprise was that two of the most conservative lobbying groups in the US at the time, the Police Chiefs Association and the Fire Chiefs Association (I don't know if those are their exact names, but those were the groups I remember) came out very strongly supporting the idea. This was a surprise because Senator Gruening was a liberal Democrat and was hardly supported by these groups in the normal course of politics.

The second surprise was that in hearings held by Gruening's Subcommittee on Government Operations on the resolution, testimony came out that, on average, if a person in an emergency didn't receive initial assistance within something like the first 15 minutes (again I don't remember the exact times, but it was something like that) the probability of them being seriously injured or dying went up exponentially. To give this assistance required qualified personnel to be receiving the calls, which is why the ATT "just call the operator" idea made no sense and why the country needed a system like 911.

Again, this was serendipitous and came out after the fact in the hearings, at which point we all realized that we were on to something far bigger than we had initially thought.

As for documentation, both the sense of Congress resolution and the subcommittee hearings are a matter of public record that you should be able to obtain either from the Government Printing Office and/or through your senator or congressmen, though it may take a little research to find the exact dates of them. Another resource would be the Congressional Daily in which numerous speeches on the subject around the time were made.

The resolution would also show who the cosponsors were. I remember them basically beating down our door to sign up where we normally had to do a lot of horse trading on bills. Nothing like a sure thing politically to do that. Similarly, the Time editorial should be available through the Time Warner archives and perhaps other sources. A good reporter should be able to advise you on that. The subcommittee hearings should provide you with quite a lot of dialogue.

My connection to it was that I was on the Senator's staff at the time working while I was completing my degree at Georgetown University--a fairly common arrangement in those days so we students could pay our way through school.

Regards,

John

Here's what Wiki says (see second website cited below)
Ernest Gruening
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Ernest Gruening



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

U.S. Senator, Alaska
In office
1959-1969
Preceded by None
Succeeded by Mike Gravel

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Born February 6, 1887
New York, NY
Died June 26, 1974
District of Columbia
Political party Democratic
Spouse Dorothy Elizabeth Smith
Profession journalist
Religion Judaism
Ernest Henry Gruening (February 6, 1887–June 26, 1974) was an American journalist and Democrat who was the Governor of the Alaska Territory from 1939 until 1953, and a United States Senator from Alaska from 1959 until 1969.

Born in New York City, Gruening graduated from Harvard University in 1907 and from Harvard Medical School in 1912. He then forsook medicine to pursue journalism. Initially a reporter for the Boston American in 1912, he went on to become copy desk editor and rewrite man for the Boston Evening Herald and, from 1912 to 1913, an editorial writer. For four years, Gruening was, consecutively, managing editor of the Boston Evening Traveler and the New York Tribune. After serving in World War I, Gruening became the editor of The Nation from 1920 to 1923 and the editor of the New York Post from 1932 to 1933.

Intrigued with New Deal politics, he switched careers. Gruening was appointed to the U.S. delegation to the 7th Inter-American Conference in 1933, Director of the Division of Territories and Island Possessions of the Department of the Interior, 1934-1939, Administrator of the Puerto Rico Reconstruction, 1935-1937. He moved to the Alaska International Highway Commission from 1938 to 1942. In 1939 Gruening was appointed Governor of the Territory of Alaska, and served in that position for fourteen years. He was a delegate to the Democratic National Conventions of 1952, 1956, and 1960.

Pending statehood, he was elected to the United States Senate in 1958; with Alaska's admission to the Union in 1959, Gruening served in the Senate for 10 years. Gruening’s most notable act as Senator was being, along with Wayne Morse of Oregon, one of only two Senators to vote against the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. He was also responsible for introducing a sense of Congress resolution to establish the nationwide 911 number.

Gruening was defeated for re-election in 1968 by fellow Democrat Mike Gravel. Gravel defeated Gruening in the Democratic primary, but Gruening ran in the general election as an independent, taking third place. He continued his active political involvement as president of an investment firm and as a legislative consultant. He died on June 26, 1974.

In 1977, Alaska donated a statue of Ernest Gruening to the United States Capitol's National Statuary Hall Collection.

Finally, the below info suggests the first state to make a 911 call (third website cited):

Encyclopedia
Most emergency vehicles in the U.S. and Canada display "Emergency 911"9-1-1 (nine-one-one) is the emergency telephone number for the North American Numbering Plan (NANP). It is one of eight N11 codes.

Development of 9-1-1
The push for the development of a nationwide emergency telephone number came in 1957 when the National Association of Fire Chiefs recommended a single number to be used for reporting fires. In 1967 the President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice recommended the creation of a single number that can be used nationwide for reporting emergencies. The burden then fell on the Federal Communications Commission, which then met with AT&T in November 1967 in order to come up with a solution.

In 1968, a solution was agreed upon. AT&T had chosen the number 911, which met the requirements that it be brief, easy to remember, dialed easily, and that it worked well with the phone systems in place at the time. The number 911 was chosen by a staff member of Senator Ernest Gruening, a Democrat from Alaska who had taken a trip to Europe and had seen that the British had a 9-9-9 nationwide emergency number. The number 911 was chosen by borrowing the 9 from the British number and choosing 11 because it was similar to the numbers in 2-1-1 (long distance), 4-1-1 (information, later called "directory assistance"), and 6-1-1 (repair service), which had already been in use by AT&T since 1966. Senator Gruening introduced a "sense of Congress" resolution to introduce the concept which was immediately supported by the fire and police chiefs' associations and attracted many cosponsors. It was introduced during the Vietnam War when funds were severely restricted, which is why it was introduced as a "sense of Congress" (meaning that the idea was one that Congress backed but wasn't funding) resolution rather than a regular funded bill. The introduction attracted national news attention at the time, as well as an editorial in Time Magazine. The resolution is part of the public record and can be obtained from Congress.

Furthermore, the North American Numbering Plan in use at the time established rules for which numbers can be used for area codes and exchanges. At the time, the middle digit of an area code had to be either a 0 or 1, and the first two digits of an exchange could not be a 1. At the telephone switching station, the second dialed digit was used to determine if the number was long distance or local. If the number had a 0 or 1 as the second digit, it was long distance, and it was a local call if it was any other number. Thus, since the number 911 was detected by the switching equipment as a special number, it could be routed appropriately. Also, since 911 was a unique number, never having been used as an area code or service code (although at one point GTE used test numbers such as 11911), it fit into the phone system easily.

AT&T announced the selection of 9-1-1 as their choice of the three-digit emergency number at a press conference in the Washington (DC) office of Indiana Rep. J. Edward Roush, who had championed Congressional support of a single emergency number.

Just 35 days after AT&T's announcement, on February 16, 1968, the first-ever 9-1-1 call was placed by Alabama Speaker of the House Rankin Fite from Haleyville, Alabama City Hall to U.S. Rep. Tom Bevill (Dem.) at the city's police station. Bevill reportedly answered the phone with "Hello." Attending with Fite was Haleyville mayor James Whitt. At the police station with Bevill was Gallagher and Alabama Public Service Commission director Eugene "Bull" Connor (the former Birmingham police commissioner made infamous for suppressing protesters). Fitzgerald was at the ATC central office serving Haleyville, and actually observed the call pass through the switching gear, as the mechanical equipment clunked out "9-1-1." The phone used to answer the first 911 call, a bright red model, is now in a museum in Haleyville, while a duplicate phone is still in use at the police station. Some accounts of the event claim that, "Later, the two (Bevill and Fite) said they exchanged greetings, hung up and 'had coffee and doughnuts.'"

In 1973, the White House urged nationwide adoption of 911. In 1999, President Bill Clinton signed the bill that designated 911 as the nationwide emergency number. Even though 9-1-1 was introduced in 1968, the network still does not completely cover some rural areas of the United States and Canada.

Funding of 9-1-1
9-1-1 and enhanced 9-1-1 are typically funded pursuant to state laws that impose monthly fees on local and wireless telephone customers. Depending on the state, counties and cities may also levy a fee, which may be in addition to, or in lieu of, the state fee. The fees are collected by local exchange and wireless carriers through monthly surcharges on customer telephone bills. The collected fees are remitted to 911 administrative bodies, which may be a statewide 911 board, the state public utility commission, a state revenue department, or local 911 agencies. These agencies disburse the funds to the Public Safety Answering Points for 911 purposes as specified in the various statutes. Telephone companies, including wireless carriers, may be entitled to apply for and receive reimbursements for costs of compliance with federal and state laws requiring that their networks be compatible with 9-1-1 and enhanced 9-1-1.

The amount of the fees vary widely by state and locality. Fees may range from around $.25 per month to $3.00 per month per line. The average wireless 9-1-1 fee is around 72¢ . Since the monthly fees do not vary by the customer's usage of the network, the fees are considered, in tax terms, as highly "regressive", i.e., the fees disproportionately burden low-volume users of the public switched network (PSN) as compared with high-volume users. Some states cap the number of lines subject to the fee for large multi-line businesses, thereby shifting more of the fee burden to low-volume single-line residential customers or wireless customers.

Congress in 2004 authorized $250,000,000 in annual funding for the 9-1-1 program, but actual appropriations to state and local 9-1-1 agencies are yet to occur.

Locating callers automatically

A view of the Jefferson County, Washington Public Safety Answering Point.Main article: Enhanced 911
In over 93% of locations in the United States and Canada, dialing "911" from any telephone will link the caller to an emergency dispatch center—called a PSAP, or Public Safety Answering Point, by the telecom industry—which can send emergency responders to the caller's location in an emergency. In some areas enhanced 911 is available, which automatically gives dispatch the caller's location, if available.

Dialing 9-1-1 from a mobile phone (Celluar/PCS) in the United States originally reached the state police or highway patrol, instead of the local public safety answering point (PSAP). The caller had to describe his/her exact location so that the agency could transfer the call to the correct local emergency services. This happens because the exact location of the cellular phone isn't normally transmitted with the voice call.

In 2000 the FCC issued an Order requiring wireless carriers to determine and transmit the location of callers who dial 9-1-1. They set up a phased program: Phase I transmitted the location of the receiving antenna for 9-1-1 calls, while Phase II transmitted the location of the calling telephone. The Order set up certain accuracy requirements and other technical details, and milestones for completing the implementation of wireless location services. Subsequent to the FCC's Order, many wireless carriers requested waivers of the milestones, and the FCC granted many of them. As of mid-2005, the process of Phase II implementation is generally underway, but limited by the complexity of coordination required between wireless carriers, PSAPs, local telephone companies and other affected government agencies, and the limited funding available to local agencies for the conversion of PSAP equipment to display the location data (usually on computerized maps).

These FCC rules require new mobile phones to provide their latitude and longitude to emergency operators in the event of a 911 call. Carriers may choose whether to implement this via GPS chips in each phone, or via triangulation between cell towers. In addition, the rules require carriers to connect 911 calls from any mobile phone, regardless of whether that phone is currently active. Due to limitations in technology (of the mobile phone, cell phone towers, and PSAP equipment), a mobile callers' geographical information may not always be available to the local PSAP. Although there are other ways, in addition to those previously stated, in which to obtain the geographical location of the caller, the caller should try to be aware of the location of the incident for which they are calling.

In the U.S., FCC rules require every telephone that can physically access the network to be able to dial 911, regardless of any reason that normal service may have been disconnected (including non-payment). On wired (land line) phones, this usually is accomplished by a "soft" dial tone, which sounds normal, but will only allow emergency calls. Often, an unused and unpublished phone number will be issued to the line so that it will work properly.

If 911 is dialed from a commercial VoIP service, depending on how the provider handles such calls, the call may not go anywhere at all, or it may go to a non-emergency number at the public safety answering point associated with the billing or service address of the caller. Because a VoIP adapter can be plugged into any broadband internet connection, the caller could actually be hundreds or even thousands of miles away from home, yet if the call goes to an answering point at all, it would be the one associated with the caller's address and not the actual location. It may never be possible to accurately pinpoint the exact location of a VoIP user (even if a GPS receiver is installed in the VoIP adapter, it will likely be indoors, and may not be able to get a signal), so users should be aware of this limitation and make other arrangements for summoning assistance in an emergency.

In March 2005, commercial Internet telephony provider Vonage was sued by the Texas attorney general, who alleged that their website and other sales and service documentation did not make clear enough that Vonage's provision of 911 service was not done in the traditional manner.

In May 2005 the FCC issued an Order requiring VoIP providers to offer 9-1-1 service to all their subscribers within 120 days of the Order being published. The Order has set off anxiety among many VoIP providers, who feel it will be too expensive and require them to adopt solutions that won't support future VoIP products.

Today most providers are conforming or trying to conform with the FCC's mandate by working with companies like Intrado or Level 3 Comm.

Problems
There are some problems with the assignment of the number 9-1-1. In particular, it can cause some dialing-pattern problems in hotels and businesses. Some hotels, for example, have been known to require dialling "91+" to make an outside call. This leads to calls that looks like 91+1+301+555+2368. Since that's a valid number, which starts with 911, and is not a call to an emergency service, a timeout becomes necessary on actual calls to 911. Such prefixes are strongly discouraged by telephone companies. This is also part of the reason why no area codes start with a "1": the slightly less troublesome "outside line" prefix of "9+" would then cause the same problem: "9+1+164+555+2368", for example. Another possible problem is that the international phone code for India is "91", and sometimes calls meant for India end up at the local emergency dispatch office.

The number's close association with emergencies has led to "911" being used as shorthand for "emergency" in text messages sent to pagers and mobile phones—however, this is often used to tag situations which do not have the life-safety implications that an actual call to 911 implies.

Emergency numbers outside the U.S. and Canada
See main article emergency telephone number
In addition to the above problems, 9-1-1 is used so pervasively in U.S. and Canadian media and safety education, which is exported to other countries, that other countries have sometimes had difficulty in educating children not to dial 9-1-1 for help. Even many American tourists do not know that 9-1-1 is not an emergency number outside the U.S. and Canada, and sometimes face problems when they are abroad.

The Netherlands, however, has redirected 9-1-1 to the local emergency line, 1-1-2.

The most common emergency number outside the U.S. and Canada is 1-1-2. The next most common is 9-9-9. Germany, for example, also uses 1-1-0 for police and 1-1-2 for fire & ambulance.

In 1991, the European Union established 1-1-2 as the universal emergency number for all its member states. In most E.U. countries, 1-1-2 is already effective and can be called toll-free from any telephone or any cellphone. The GSM mobile phone standard designates 1-1-2 as an emergency number, so it will work on such systems even in the U.S. In the UK, the number is 9-9-9 with 1-1-2 working in parallel.

In Australia emergency number is 000. However, on mobile phones, 000, 9-1-1 and 1-1-2 all are directed to the 000 number.

In India and Israel, the police number is 100, Ambulance is 101 and fire is 102.

In New Zealand, because rotary telephone dials were scribed in the reverse order of ones in the UK (0-9, instead of 9-0), 1-1-1 was selected as the emergency number.

In South Africa 10111 is used to call the South African Police Service and 10177 to call the national (state) ambulance service. The GSM Mobile Emergency number is 112. Vodacom users can also call 147. Private emergency numbers (medical emergencies) for "Netcare 911" is 082911 and ER24 is 084124.

September 11
When the 9-1-1 system was originally introduced, it was advertised as the "nine-eleven" service. This was changed when some panicked individuals tried to find the "eleven" key on their telephones. (This may seem bizarre and amusing, but it is important to remember that in emergencies people can easily become extremely confused and irrational.) Therefore, all references to the telephone number 9-1-1 are now always made as nine-one-one — never as "nine-eleven".

Some newspapers and other media require that references to the phone number be formatted as 9-1-1; nine-eleven is still used occasionally but less so since the term came to refer to the September 11 attacks in the United States, as most Americans write dates month/day. It is advised that members of the media or other persons writing or speaking of the events of September 11, 2001 should never refer to those events as nine-one-one as this causes even more confusion.