Outside of the walls nothings has changed in Hartselle

Randy Garrison

Hartselle Enquirer

“Outside of the walls nothing has changed” Hartselle Police Chief Ron Puckett talked about when discussing the recent transfer of police dispatch to Morgan County E-911. As of Oct. 1, 2015, all police dispatch for Hartselle is now handled by the central dispatch center in Decatur.

This event occurred when the city council voted to move the dispatch to Morgan 911 in September. All but one of the five city dispatchers accepted employment with Morgan 911 and are now a part of the county system.

Chief Puckett mentioned that there are changes inside the offices now that the dispatchers are no longer located at the police station.

If someone needs help after hours there is a phone in the lobby that they can use and this will connect them to the dispatchers at County 911. Puckett mentioned that many times those who came to the station only had a civil matter and just needed someone to talk to and an officer was not dispatched out. Now the dispatcher will access the information given to them and send an officer if needed.

Other changes include: finger prints can only be done during the day and accident or incident reports can only be picked up during regular business hours, which are 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Puckett did want to assure Hartselle citizens that if they need the HPD, the Morgan County 911 dispatchers will answer and the police officers will be dispatched as they always have done in the past. Receiving help when needed from the officers has not changed.

Puckett did mention that most of the calls they received were on the 256- 773-6534 number rather than 911, even emergency calls. That seven-digit number now rings to Morgan County 911.

The police department can be reached at 256-773-8264 for non-emergency calls.