Dispatcher Responds to Critical Incident

It was Northwest Central Dispatch System (Ill.) dispatcher Paul Jenkins who answered the 911 call on April 17th reporting that three persons had been stabbed to death in the city of Hoffman Estates, and now he’s been profiled in the local newspaper. He says the 911 call later sounded scarier than it actually was at the time. “When you’re taking it, it’s business. You fall back on your training,” Jenkins told the reporter. Jenkins was just 16 minutes short of ending his night shift when the stabbing call came in–three persons dead, one critically injured. He recalls standing up during the call and talking directly to the police dispatcher to help coordinate the response quicker. Read Jenkins account of the incident here, and then read the humble letter he wrote to the local newspaper about his actions, and the newspaper’s decision not to release the audio of the 911 logging tape.