Phillips County Cuts Elaine Police from 911 Dispatch, Mayor Cites Safety Crisis

Phillips County cut the City of Elaine police department's access to the county 911 dispatch center on Saturday, a move Mayor Lisa Hicks Gilbert called a public-safety crisis that left her unable to assure residents their emergency calls would be answered with a response.

Gilbert traced the breakdown to a dispute that began roughly a year ago, when an Elaine citizen called 911 after finding his elderly mother unresponsive. According to Gilbert, the county never dispatched emergency services and the woman died. "We were upset. Some of us [were] like, where are they? Where are they? They didn't dispatch, and someone loses their life, and it's obvious because, you know, emergency services weren't dispatched," Gilbert said. That allegation has not been independently verified with county dispatch records, and the county has not publicly responded to the claim.

The timing of Saturday's cutoff added a procedural wrinkle. Gilbert said the Elaine city council was actively reviewing an agreement the county had sent the city when the county abruptly ended the department's access to dispatch. Phillips County Justice of the Peace Lita Moore Johnson then informed Gilbert that the agreement had never been presented to the Phillips County Quorum Court for approval, something Gilbert said she found deeply concerning. "I feel as though our law enforcement deserve access to county services as to better serve our community," Gilbert said.

Gilbert said she was told the county would continue to accept 911 calls from Elaine residents, but she said neither the city nor its residents have clarity on what that means in practice: whether Elaine police would be notified, whether county dispatch would route emergency responders, or whether the city's officers would simply be cut out of the loop entirely. "They're in doubt, and I don't know how to assure them. I believe if they dial 911 that, you know, 911 is gonna dispatch fire or an ambulance if somebody's chasing them with a knife, I don't know. I do not know," she said.

Elaine resident Billy Williams said the stakes extend beyond the immediate dispatch dispute. "Elaine has a low crime rate and I believe that is because of our community resources. Without those resources our community will be at risk for higher crime," Williams told reporters.

Gilbert suggested the conflict may run deeper than the dispatch access question, saying the soured relationship between the city and county "might be about more than the dispatch issue," though she did not specify what those additional factors might be. A Facebook post circulating about the situation included a fragment suggesting county officials claimed they were forced to cut millions from an unspecified budget, but that statement was incomplete and could not be verified from available information.

Phillips County Judge Hall provided a statement to the Helena World on Thursday in response to the situation, but the content of that statement was not available at publication time. The county has not issued a public explanation of who authorized the dispatch cutoff, what legal mechanism was used, or whether the action required Quorum Court approval. Those questions remain unanswered as Elaine's city council weighs its next steps.