Q. When was 911 service established in Chattanooga?
A. The history of dialing 911 during an emergency dates to 1968, according to 911.gov, but the service wasn’t available in Hamilton County and Chattanooga until Feb. 1, 1981, when it was established for most of the area.
Morris Slutsky, a Chattanoogan since 1933 when he moved to the Scenic City and opened a small grocery store, was the leading advocate for establishing the service in the Chattanooga area, according to an editorial in the Chattanooga Times Free Press upon his death in 2002.
In 1984, he led a drive to improve the 911 system. That November, 89% of voters cast ballots in favor of the improvements. That vote led to the establishment of the Hamilton County Emergency Communications District, according to hamiltontn911.gov.
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