Tazewell County Consolidated Communications (TC3) was founded in December of 2017 as an autonomous agency through Inter-governmental Agreement of the following bodies:
City of East Peoria, Illinois
City of Morton, Illinois
City of Pekin, Illinois
City of Washington, Illinois
Tazewell County, Illinois
Tazewell County Emergency Telephone System Board
The process was a result of a change in Illinois law requiring counties to reduce the number of 9-1-1 Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs) by 50%. For Tazewell County, that meant a reduction from 4 to 2. Prior to the change in law, PSAPs were operated by the East Peoria Police Department, Morton Police Department, Washington Police Department and a combined PSAP operation called TAZCOM serving the City of Pekin and the Tazewell County Sheriff.
The process was initiated by the Tazewell County Emergency Telephone System Board (ETSB), the governmental body defined by law to oversee 9-1-1 services and distribute funds collected as a surcharge from telephone bills. The ETSB provides technology and support services to each PSAP. The ETSB commissioned a Consolidation Report in 2017 to identify the process of consolidation, it’s impact on Tazewell County public safety agencies and potential costs.
The approach to the formation of TC3 takes into account the need to have a workable and live backup mechanism should the services at any PSAP be compromised. In many cases, counties operate only 1 PSAP and rely on an adjacent county or large city to receive the overflow 9-1-1 calls or all calls should the PSAP be disabled. The backup PSAP would require communications technology and the space for personnel to continue operations. Very few PSAPs have the capabilities for full backup operations of another large operation.
For this reason, TC3 will maintain 2 fully equipped 9-1-1 centers to provide complete mutual operation capabilities for Tazewell County. Both PSAPs are operated and staffed by a single administrative organization. This method provides the most efficiency, consistency and assurance of quality in 9-1-1 services.
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