Portland Police Chief Dustin Mock is pushing back against dispatch-merger arguments after a question at a city council meeting invoked the fatal shooting of 14-year-old Hayden Grody. The question was clarified as not intended to assign blame to Portland Police Dispatch, and Mock said public-safety decisions should rest on documented records rather than speculation tied to the teenager's death.
Mock issued his comments following the city council meeting, according to Mercer County Outlook. The chief said that a young person lost his life, and tying that tragedy to dispatch consolidation risks implying the existing dispatch arrangement contributed to his death or that consolidation would have prevented it — a connection the meeting itself acknowledged remains unknown, since what would have happened otherwise simply cannot be established. Hayden Grody was killed on Meadow Lane in late September, when his 35-year-old father, Michael A. Grody, was charged with murder after admitting to the shooting, as Hoodline previously reported.
Chief Says Records, Not Speculation, Should Guide the Debate
Portland police dispatch serves calls within the city, and officers who responded to the Grody case did so based on the information they received at the time, per the same account. Mock said any claims of a communication failure should be supported by actual records before conclusions are drawn, warning that public speculation could unfairly cast doubt on officers, dispatchers, and fellow responders who were simply working with what they knew in the moment.
Despite the friction, Mock expressed support for Jay County Sheriff Newton, saying he has confidence the sheriff takes legitimate public-safety concerns seriously and would try to address reasonable improvement requests. The chief also referenced a meeting he did not attend, where requests concerning automatic mutual aid were discussed, and said what specifically was requested, what action followed, and what remains unresolved should be clearly explained before the debate moves forward.
Fire and EMS Already Routed Through the County
Jay County already dispatches for Portland fire and EMS, while municipal police calls remain handled separately by Portland police dispatchers, the outlet's report notes. Mock acknowledged that fire personnel deserve meaningful input into how that dispatch service operates, but he said a desire for a voice does not explain why Portland police dispatch must be eliminated entirely just to obtain it.
The technical groundwork for a merger already exists in some form. A 2015 announcement said Portland had chosen to join the existing Spillman computer-aided dispatch and records system hosted on county servers by the Jay County Sheriff's Office, according to Police1. Jay County Sheriff's Office members also assisted at the Grody scene.
A Six-Page Assessment and an Unanswered Question
Mock provided a six-page assessment to the city council and the Board of Works in September 2026, addressing costs, staffing, duties left behind, officer availability, accountability, and alternatives, drawing from the consultant's own findings on the proposal. He has since shared that assessment publicly for residents to read in full.
The council's motion was only to begin discussions about dispatch consolidation, and Mock has said he agrees consolidation is technically feasible. But he maintains he has not been shown a complete analysis demonstrating actual benefits to Portland residents and the police department once full costs and operational consequences are factored in. A transition, he noted, would require substantial planning, staffing arrangements, and formal agreements — not an overnight fix.
State law encourages this kind of regional thinking: under Indiana Code § 36-8-16.7, state regulations oversee local Public Safety Answering Points and incentivize countywide 911 consolidation to streamline emergency telecommunications statewide, according to Indiana General Assembly statutory records. Even so, Mock said he does not believe his documented concerns have received meaningful answers. He said his position and recommendations remain available for anyone to read, and that he stands by his assessment without intending to continue the public debate further.
