The future of law enforcement  and medical services dispatch in Shelby County may bring the City of Shelbyville and Shelby County together as one unit.

Shelby County Commissioners were addressed this week by Barry Ritter, co-founder of Ritter Strategic Services.

Shelby County Sheriff Louie Koch explains what Ritter has been doing.

Ritter has thirty years of experience in public safety at the municipal, county, and state level.  He began his public safety career as a police officer in Richmond serving through the rank of Deputy Chief of Police.

After retiring, Ritter served for five years as the Director of the Wayne County Emergency Communications Department, a consolidated 9-1-1 center.  In that time, the county built a new 9-1-1 center, purchased new radios and migrated to the State’s trunked 800 system.

Ritter was instrumental in leading nine Indiana counties to the very first multi-county ESinet for 9-1-1 services in Indiana.

The sheriff says local officials have been studying what can be done to improve the current arrangement of city and county dispatch.

The idea is not a new one.  In fact, most neighboring counties have done the same.

Koch notes that combining dispatch efforts in a regional format has been discussed but doesn’t look like it’s the direction Shelbyville and Shelby County will go right now.

Shelby County Commissioners approved Ritter continuing the process including creating a board to further address the issue. 

Sheriff Koch says it may be 18 – 24 months before a transition to a combined dispatch would be completed.