By Fran Spielman
The Chicago Sun-Times
CHICAGO — After a second troubling incident, the Daley administration on Tuesday reassigned the dispatcher responsible for the 911 dispatch delay that left an off-duty police officer to fend for himself while being shot at by a carful of alleged gang members.
The reassignment followed a 911 call last weekend allegedly mishandled by the same dispatcher — this time about an Illinois State Police officer conducting a foot chase through the Dan Ryan Woods, sources said.
A citizen called 911 to report the foot chase and request help for State Police, sources said.
The dispatcher contacted State Police to verify the chase, only to be told that help was not required at that time, sources said. But the dispatcher mistakenly logged the event as “information only for police.”
That’s a category normally reserved for open fire hydrants, downed trees and other events forcing street closures.
“Information-only calls do not require assistance from police at the time of entry and are most likely not going to require police assistance for the duration,” said a source familiar with the incident.
“This call should have been logged as a priority so that, if other calls came in, they’d be aware of the ongoing activity and be able to send help immediately. This was an active foot chase. The officer’s safety could have been in danger at any time. Anytime a call comes in involving the safety of a [first-responder], it should be logged as a priority and followed up on until the activity has ceased.”
On Tuesday, the dispatcher in question was yanked off the 911 center floor and reassigned to “administrative work in the training division” pending the outcome of both investigations, said Therese Kordelewski, a spokeswoman for the city’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications.
The Chicago Sun-Times reported last week that OEMC has launched an investigation to find out why up to eight minutes went by before police were dispatched to assist an off-duty officer who called 911 on Aug. 28 to report that he had been shot at by a car filled with alleged gang members.
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