The Richland County Sheriff Department announced the recent addition of three new detectives to its Major Crimes Unit. Stacy Dittrich, Duane Kilgore and Joe Lewis all received internal promotions from road patrol to detective.
Major Dale Fortney stated, “We are taking deputies who have done great things on the road and placing them in the position to do equally well in the more serious, felony crimes.”
Stacy Dittrich of Mansfield has 22 years of experience, 18 of those years serving as a police officer.
Dittrich graduated from Lexington High School and went on to attend the University of Toledo and The Ohio State University.
“My whole family is in law enforcement. I grew up in it; this was my career goal. It’s where I wanted to be,” said Dittrich.
Though the new position is referred to as an internal promotion, Dittrich stated there was no increase in rank or pay. Dittrich added the main differences in the duties are, “We are not out in uniform or patrol cars taking the initial complaint. We finish it; do the search warrants, arrests, prosecution, that sort of thing,” said Dittrich.
Dittrich believes her years of experience will enable her to make the transition into investigative work with confidence. Also a published author Dittrich has written a series of True Crime and fiction books.
With 25 years of experience Duane Kilgore of Mansfield also joined the rank of detective. The county-wide beat would include investigative duties including felonies, burglaries, breaking and entering, homicide, rapes, and narcotics.
Kilgore graduated from Shelby High School and spent four years in the Marine Corps. He joined the sheriff’s department in 1989 and attended the police academy at North Central Technical College in 1990.
Joe Lewis, the third addition to attain the rank of detective, graduated from Lexington High School and attended Wayne County Sheriff Academy. Lewis joined the sherif’sf department in 1991 and began road patrol in 1992.
“I’ve spent 21 years to get to this position, I wanted to do crime scene investigation,” said Lewis.
He added, “ We get to see the end result for the victims in this role now. Though the schooling is more intensive and there is more responsibility, there’s more satisfaction. You see the closure for the victims.”
According to Lewis the main difference in duties is that road patrol consists mainly of handling initial calls and complaints. As detectives, those cases are assigned for follow-up to include indepth investigation, grand jury and if necessary, having to testify.
Sheriff Steve Sheldon commented, “In 2008 the economy was in such a way that we had to drastically cut personnel. As people retire we are trying to replace what we lost. Our budget has increased and we are getting back to running an efficient and effective operation.”
Sheldon added that the department is still short 20 deputies, the Board of Commissioners as well as the auditor had been instrumental in getting the department back on track.
“This is all part of how we are progressing: Placing three new detectives goes hand in hand with becoming more effective,” said Sheldon. He also added that the recent rise in burglaries has a direct correlation to the rise in narcotics. “Having good detectives taking criminals off the street does have an affect,” said Sheldon.
“This is all part of how we are progressing: Placing three new detectives goes hand in hand with becoming more effective,” said Sheriff Steve Sheldon.
