Johnson County 911 dispatcher Kaitlynn Rhude takes calls at the Johnson County Public Safety Communications Center on March 22, 2019.
Daily Journal Archive Photo
News from around Johnson County as reported on March 23 in the pages of the Daily Journal and the Franklin Evening Star from the last 111 years.
On this day in 2019, the main story on the front page of the Daily Journal was about a local 911 dispatcher who received a national award for talking a man down.
The call had begun like many others. A mom who had been arguing with her teenage son called 911 because the 18-year-old had been drinking alcohol and was out of control.
While there was nothing unusual about the call at first, it later took a turn when the man grabbed a knife from the kitchen, confined his mom and her boyfriend to a bedroom in their trailer and threatened to kill them.
Dispatcher Kaitlynn Rhude listened as it all played out on the other end of the line.
Moments later, Rhude asked if she could talk to the man spewing threats in the background, and calmed him down in the 13 minutes it took sheriff’s deputies to arrive at the Center Grove area home.
Her quick thinking during the call ultimately saved three lives, including the man making the threats. For her actions, Rhude had received an award that only two dispatchers in the country receive a month: the Teammates in Action Award from the Association of Public Safety Communicators.
It was neat to receive the award, she said.
“It’s very humbling. It made me feel important and valued,” Rhude said.
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Other memorable Johnson County stories from this day
2000
Clark-Pleasant Community School Corp. officials were shifting their focus of planning efforts to address rapid growth at Whiteland High School. The school was 48,800 square feet too small to accommodate projected growth.
1984
State officials said they would fine the city of Franklin $700 for allowing sewage from a faulty lift station to spill into Youngs Creek and kill an unknown number of fish in September 1983.
1971
A drug raid at a Franklin apartment building found 200 LSD tablets and marijuana. The raid took place less than a block away from a drug raid that took place about four months earlier.
