Naperville honors departing telecommunicator

The Naperville police and fire departments recently honored Emergency Communications Manager Kalah Considine with their Telecommunicator of the Year Award.

Considine retired April 18 after 42 years of service.

She began her career in Naperville as a police officer in 1977. She became a dispatcher with the city's electric department in 1983, was promoted to chief dispatcher in 1999 and assumed her role as emergency communications manager in 2011.

"Kalah has certainly witnessed the growth and challenges associated with building and maintaining a grade A, state-of-the-art, responsive telecommunication system here in Naperville," Fire Chief Mark Puknaitis said. "Her diligence, professionalism and attention to detail, while always keeping the people of our organization first, have succeeded in providing what is truly the top-rated emergency public safety answering point for our residents and the Naperville community."

"The job of an emergency communications manager has become increasingly more complex technologically in recent years, and Kalah has demonstrated adaptability and proficiency time and again by continuing to upgrade her skills through education and networking," Police Chief Robert Marshall said. "Kalah ensures our technology keeps pace with the rapidly-changing landscape of public safety communications, and she does so while always ensuring that her employees had the best training and work environment available."

The emergency communications manager oversees 26 telecommunicators and four supervisors in Naperville's nationally-accredited 911 dispatch center, which is staffed to handle emergency and nonemergency phone calls and police/fire incidents.

The Naperville Public Safety Answering Point telecommunicators answer a daily average of 140 911 calls and 300 nonemergency calls. In 2018, they handled the dispatching of roughly 81,500 police events and 14,000 fire/emergency medical incidents.

The emergency communications manager also oversees 10 city dispatchers, who answered more than 80,000 calls related to the city's public works department and water and electric utilities in 2018.

In addition to awarding the Telecommunicator of the Year, Naperville also recognized City Dispatcher Sarah Cowan and 911 telecommunicators Harold Downs, Allegra Glienke, Nick Nigro and Jordan Sloop for their service throughout the past year.