Deschutes County 9-1-1 Operations became a consolidated public safety dispatching agency in 1985, taking calls for police, fire, and medical service assistance for the 9-1-1 Service District in Deschutes County. 9-1-1 Operations dispatches for 14 police and fire/ems agencies and works closely with the U.S. Forest Service, BLM, Air Life, State Police and other State and Federal agencies. These calls are entered via a computerized dispatch system and units are sent to the incident. 

In 2005 dispatchers answered 283,389 calls for service. Some 64,500 of those calls were taken on the 911 emergency lines. That's about one hundred seventy six 911 calls everyday, or one 911 call every four minutes. A recent study estimates that calls for service will increase to 324,241 calls per year by 2010. A call for service can range from road information and animal complaints to major crimes and fires, or disasters such as train derailments, hazardous materials spills, earthquakes and floods.

The 9-1-1 Service District covers an area in excess of 3000 sq. miles. The current  population is over 148,000 and the area sees about two million visiting tourists each year.