Boone County's 911 dispatch center earned Kentucky's 2026 Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) 911 Agency of the Year after coordinating a 21-agency emergency response to a deputy shooting.
Judge Executive Gary Moore announced the honor at a Boone County Fiscal Court meeting Tuesday, Sept. 22, according to the Northern Kentucky Tribune. Moore told Daniel Aylor, director of the Boone County Public Safety Communications Center (PSCC), to pass along the court's congratulations and said the court is proud of the department.
The Kentucky Emergency Number Association and the Kentucky chapter of the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials presented the award, which recognizes a deserving 911 dispatch center each year, Link NKY reported.
The PSCC receives emergency calls and dispatches law enforcement, fire and emergency medical resources across all of Boone County, including Florence, Union, Burlington and Hebron.
The incident behind the award
The recognition stems from an August 2025 shooting in Walton in which two Boone County Sheriff's Office deputies were shot while serving a felony warrant on Service Road, according to a Boone County government statement. The incident triggered a multi-agency response that required dispatchers to coordinate 15 law enforcement agencies, four fire departments and two emergency management agencies from across the region.
Throughout that night, dispatchers coordinated lifesaving resources, supported field responders and helped protect community members while still handling other emergency calls, the county statement said.
Both deputies survived. They were discharged from UC Medical Center and returned home. Major Philip Ridgell of the Boone County Sheriff's Office said at the time that their bulletproof vests helped save their lives.
"It could have been horrific … instead of two deputies being discharged, we could be talking about potentially planning the funerals," Ridgell said in an September 2025 Link NKY report.
New building on the way
The PSCC is housed in the Florence Government Building, in a space the county says it is outgrowing. Boone County broke ground March 18 on a new 20,000-square-foot Emergency Services Building on the Boone County Public Safety Campus that will house both the 911 center and Boone County Emergency Management.
The facility is built to withstand wind speeds up to 250 miles per hour, ensuring uninterrupted 911 operations during severe weather. Construction began in March and is expected to take about 14 months, with completion around spring 2027.
