As recently as the early 1970's, dispatch coverage was only available from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., handled by secretaries in the Dayton Police Department and the Columbia County Sheriff's Office.  After hours and on the weekends, telephone calls were routed directly to the Sheriff's house.

Before the advent of patrol radios, small red lights mounted on the power poles in the north and south alleys of Main Street were used to notify an officer of a pending call.  

By 1975, there were two small, simple dispatch bases in Columbia County.  One was operated by the Dayton Police Department in Dayton City Hall, the other was operated by the Columbia County Sheriff's Office located in the Columbia County Courthouse.  In that year, by mutual agreement between the Dayton City Council and the Columbia County Board of Commissioners, the offices of the Dayton Police Department were moved into the Columbia County Courthouse to share office space with the Sheriff's Office.  This created a joint city/county dispatch center; the birth of centralized emergency services dispatch in Columbia County.

The first 911 line in Columbia County was put into service around 1978.  By 1981, the 911 system consisted of two dedicated phone lines on a rotary telephone.  There were three radios, and three radio frequencies; one for local law enforcement, one for fire and ambulance, and one for area law enforcement use.  In 1981, the city/county dispatch center  had no computers, a single mechanical teletype machine and several typewriters.  All data was typed and recorded on 3x5 index cards and filed in a master file.

In contrast, today the Columbia County E911 Communications Center consists of two stations equipped with an extensive computer network within the Sheriff's Office, a computerized radio system that monitors up to 34 radio frequencies, a Computer-Aided Dispatch (CAD) system that stores all data, a computerized teletype system, computerized telephone system and one typewriter in the corner gathering dust.  The Columbia County E911 Communications Center now provides emergency dispatch services for three fire districts in Columbia and Walla Walla Counties, two ambulance services in both Dayton and Waitsburg, as well as the Columbia County Sheriff's Office, Columbia County Search and Rescue, Columbia County Dive Rescue and local units of the Department of Fish and Wildlife, Washington State Patrol and the United States Forest Service.  

There was no ambulance in Dayton until 1965.  Until then, transports of sick or injured persons to the hospital were achieved by private vehicle or by hearse serving double duty.   During the 1980's, the ambulance service was pretty much “swoop and scoop”.

Fire and ambulance were dispatched with a device called a “Plectron”; a mechanical, automatic dialer that set off the dispatch tones.  But it didn't work all the time.  The Dayton City Fire Department was dispatched through the use of a network of 1950's era CiviI Defense air raid sirens. If the City Fire Department was needed, and the Plectron didn't work, dispatchers resorted to the use of a rocker box mounted on the wall to run the fire siren on the roof of City Hall.  Senior Communications Officer Tim Quigg ended this era on July 16, 2004 when he blew the city fire sirens for the last time.  This decades-old method of dispatching the City Fire Department has since been retired in lieu of more modern forms of dispatching using pagers and portable radios.

In August of 1993, the Columbia County Sheriff's Office took over full operations of the 911 center.  At that time, the joint city/county dispatch center was consolidated, and became the Columbia County 911 Emergency Dispatch Center.  In October of 1995, the Dayton City Council voted to dissolve the Dayton Police Department, and contracted with the Columbia County Sheriff's Office to provide law enforcement services for the city.  

Enhanced or “E911” was brought on line in July of 1997, and our name changed once again to the Columbia County E911 Communications Center, as it is known today.  The E911 system displays the name, address and phone number of the calling party, along with emergency services that cover that area.  With the advent of geo-mapping in June of 2004, the center is now able to obtain GPS latitude and longitude coordinates for both residential and cellular telephone services.

In 2004, the citizens of Columbia County voted to combine the Dayton City Fire Department and Rural Fire District #3 together as a “joint fire protection district.”  In 2005, the Columbia County Ambulance Service joined this combined emergency services cooperative.  

The Columbia County E911 Communications Center continues to evolve and grow, providing 24-hour coverage for the citizens of Dayton and Columbia County.  Currently, the center employs five full-time and one part-time Communications Officers, some of which have more than 25 years of individual emergency dispatch experience.  All communications officers within the center are nationally-certified Emergency Medical Dispatchers through the National Academy of Emergency Medical Dispatch.