Hanover Park honors police, civilian employees of the year

Laura Roberts is soft-spoken, steady, calm.

She's often the first face between victims of a crisis and Hanover Park police. As a records clerk, she works the front desk during the department's busiest shift until midnight.

In short, she helps people get help.

"I try to be empathetic, give them what they need," says Roberts, first hired in 2010.

Roberts was one of two chosen for the department's first employee of the year awards. Roberts got the 2014 civilian honor, and officer Tim Allen the sworn, during a presentation before the village board Thursday night.

The awards are named after Carl Ahlstrand, the village's second police chief who volunteered to head the small force after the first resigned. Ahlstrand was killed near Lake Street and Walnut Avenue Feb. 22, 1959. He had pulled over a car for speeding and was talking to the driver when truck driver lost control and veered off the road. The collision killed Ahlstrand and two passengers in the parked car.

The distinction pays tribute to his sacrifice, a "grim reminder" of the dangers faced by cops during traffic stops, Chief David Webb said.

A committee of employees and their supervisors picked the winners from nominations by their peers.

Roberts has earned a reputation as a compassionate, positive "go-to person" for residents and officers, Webb said.

"I don't think I did any better than any of my other co-workers," a modest Roberts said. "I'm just really honored that they chose me."

Allen, assigned to a special unit targeting gangs and narcotics since January, received the most nominations, but it was the content and "not the sheer number that was the deciding factor," Webb said.

He and officer Tim McNulty administered lifesaving doses of Narcan to a 29-year-old man overdosing on heroin March 26. Allen and McNulty were seemingly novices, trained on how to use the nasal spray less than a week before, but successfully revived the man.

Allen's teamwork and work confronting what DuPage County law enforcement call an epidemic - a record 46 deaths from heroin in 2013 - impressed the committee, Webb said. Part of that work means tracking down dealers of the "poison," Webb said.

The Elgin native says he's only doing "what he's supposed to be doing" and what his mom told him after working as a 9-1-1 dispatcher.

"Always treat someone the way you'd like to be treated," he said.