Blizzard kept Schaumburg police busy

Many were lucky enough to weather last week’s historic blizzard safe and sound indoors.

Schaumburg police officers were not among them.

From the time the storm really hit at about 4 p.m. Feb. 1 until midnight the following day, patrol officers handled 441 calls — of which 178 were motorist assists — in a 32-hour period.

The numbers are even more staggering when one realizes that many of those calls involved multiple stalled or stranded cars in one place, requiring the response of two or three patrol officers.

The absolutely busiest time of the storm was the eight-hour period from 4 p.m. to midnight Feb. 1. During that time, there were 201 calls of which 72 were motorist assists but, miraculously, NO accidents!

Another 26 of the calls during those evening hours were for burglar alarms triggered by the night’s high winds.

Despite the high number of calls and stranded vehicles, there were only seven accidents during the height of the blizzard — two between midnight and 8 a.m. Feb. 2 and five more from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Schaumburg Police Chief Brian Howerton said he is particularly proud of the police department personnel for handling the high number of service calls promptly and professionally without a single police department employee accident, injury or citizen complaint.