Dispatchers Honored For Shooting Incident

Kudos to Oak Lawn (Ill.) dispatchers Joe McGrath, Justin Haubenreiser, Linda George and Team Leader Kathleen Hansen for their handling of a Feb. 18th shooting that wounded two Burbank police officers and left the gunman dead. Communications director Stacy Guercio said the motel shoot-out was “a dispatcher’s worst nightmare,” and that it was a long 10 minutes before the dispatchers knew exactly what had occurred. The dispatchers were honored last week at the village board meeting, and described McGrath on the radio as “calm, confident and in control the entire time.” The Oak Lawn comm center provides dispatching for Burbank PD, its neighbor, northwest of Chicago.