Dixon, Mo., could see a faster 911 response this summer

DIXON, Mo. (KY3) - Police in one small Ozarks town say you could see faster response times when you call 911. For the first time in years, the city of Dixon is working toward round-the-clock dispatch coverage.

For about two years, Dixon has relied on Pulaski County Sheriff’s Office deputies to respond to calls after 4 p.m., creating gaps during off-hours.

Melissa Stallings, who works in Dixon, says she experienced that first-hand about two years ago when she called about a man with a head injury and was told there was only one officer on duty.

“There wasn’t an officer available that he was out on another call, so it would take a while for him to get to us,” Stallings said. “Which one officer for the whole town of Dixon, that’s, that’s hard if you’re on one side of the town and then you’re working something, and then you gotta wait and go back up,”

Retired officer Charles Mcpeak, who spent four years with the Dixon Police Department, says staffing remains the biggest challenge—especially when smaller departments can’t compete with larger agencies on pay.

“It affects them being able to get officers,” Mcpeak said. “And it just, they’re trying to do what they can to get everything back up and going.”

Dixon Police Chief Bryan Gibbs says recruiting has been difficult, in part because many new graduates from the academy choose larger departments.

“Most of it pretty much was just the lack of manpower. I mean, down here, people, when they graduate the academy,” Gibbs said. “They want to go to the larger departments and get into the mess of things quick and everything like that, but we still have those kind of problems down here, just not as much.”

The chief says residents could begin calling Dixon Police after 4 p.m. again as soon as the end of the summer, depending on staffing and training.

During the transition, Gibbs says residents should continue calling the county for emergency and non-emergency calls during off-hours.

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