Police and 911 dispatchers are the unsung heroes of emergency response.

They’re the public’s life line to aid and succor, the first voice heard by folks in need, that core of calm in a world which for the caller has suddenly somehow exploded.

No one ever wants to call the local PD or 911. Those who do are unnerved or angry or panicked or sick or hurt or maybe even dying. Dispatchers work on the fly and under fire, and through it all they must remain as soothing as a therapist and as precise as a census taker.

Yet dispatchers are seldom recognized for their work. They toil in radio shacks, outside the public eye, overshadowed by the men and women in uniform who, in fact, depend on the dispatchers absolutely as much as the public does.

At its meeting Thursday night, the Chesterton Police Commission did recognize and honor one of its own: Communications Clerk Cindy Radiger, for her exemplary service on Aug. 20.

Police Chief Dave Cincoski read the following citation on Radiger’s Certificate of Commendation, presented to Radiger by Member Brandon Kroft.

“Upon the occasion of a reported suicidal subject, responding officers were unable to ascertain the true origination of the incident. Communications Clerk Radiger, in the course of her duties, took it upon herself to conduct research and investigate information in an expeditious manner, eventually leading officers to a correct location. Her unprompted actions and calm bearing resulted in a quick police and medical response that otherwise could have had an unfortunate outcome. Communications Clerk Radiger’s professional, prompt, and composed actions are hereby being recognized as a standard to which all should aspire and emulate.”

Radiger has been a veteran dispatcher with 23 years’ service.

In other business, Cincoski read a note of gratitude from Nick and Diane Pratt, the parents of the late Porter County Sheriff’s Police Officer Phillip Pratt, 24, who died on May 16 in an off-duty motorcycle accident in Washington Township.

The CPD’s Honor Guard participated in Pratt’s funeral services.

“Words do not express our gratitude and appreciation for your acts of kindness and compassion showed both Phillip and our entire family,” the Pratts wrote. “We will always remember it and we know Phillip would have been pleased and moved by it.”

Pratt was a Chesterton native, a 2006 graduate of Chesterton High School and a recipient of the Tim Hecht Scholarship, named for the PCSP officer who died in 1999 in a SWAT Team training exercise. He graduated from Indiana University in Bloomington in 2009, with a double major in criminal justice and sociology and joined the PCSP as a patrol officer in June 2009.

Cincoski took a moment at the end of the meeting to express his and his department’s condolences to the Porter Police Department on the death of Nicky, Officer Scott Cornelison’s K-9 partner.

Nicky died unexpectedly in August, following surgery for a bulging disk.

“If there’s anything this department can do,” Cincoski said, “they only have to holler.”

In August the CPD responded to 1,741 calls (2,044 in July), filed 87 cases (65), filed 14 felony charges and 25 misdemeanor (eight and 37), issued 121 citations and 284 warnings (239 and 489), served four warrants (three), and investigated 32 accidents with 10 injuries (38 accidents with no injuries).

No report on juvenile activity last month was available.

Calls for service in August included 45 alarms (43 in July), 15 animal complaints (18), one report of battery (two), four burglaries (one), one burning complaint (zero), one report of a counterfeit bill (zero), one death investigation (zero), 27 disturbances (24), eight domestic calls (six), five fireworks complaints (25), nine reports of fraud (eight), two reports of identity theft (one), 17 miscellaneous juvenile complaints (17), one motor vehicle theft (zero), nine noise complaints (three), nine parking violations (four), one peddler complaint (one), four residence checks (10), one runaway (zero), one sex offense (one), one report of shoplifting (zero), 60 suspicious circumstances (44), 36 suspicious persons (43), 27 suspicious vehicles (30), 25 thefts (26), 444 traffic stops (546), two train complaints (two), 29 incidents of vandalism (four), and six vehicle repossessions (six).

Posted 9/17/2012