Rahm Emanuel Names Illinois National Guard Brigadier General Alicia Tate-Nadeau to head Chicago's 911 Emergency Center

PHOTO: Alicia Tate-Nadeau was promoted to brigadier general in the Illinois National Guard, making her the first female general in state history. Her children, Lindsey and Gavin, were on hand for the ceremony in Springfield on March 7, 2015.  

Two days after naming a new police superintendent from within the Chicago Police Department, Mayor Rahm Emanuel will appoint a top official in the Illinois National Guard to run the Office of Emergency Management and Communications.

Alicia Tate-Nadeau will succeed Gary Schenkel, who headed the agency that includes the city's 911 dispatch center and plays a key role in coordinating the municipal response to events like large snowstorms and the NATO protests, since shortly after Emanuel took office.

The Emanuel administration said Schenkel, a former U.S. Marine, decided to retire. He is stepping down three months after two call takers at the 911 center failed to send police squad cars to a West Side residence where Quintonio LeGrier had called for help, saying someone was threatening his life. When Legrier called OEMC a third time, officers were dispatched to the home and one of them fatally shot the 19-year-old college student and neighbor Bettie Jones.

Two 911 dispatchers were suspended without pay for failing to send police to the residence. The FBI has joined a probe into the late December police shootings, and the officer who fatally shot baseball bat-wielding Legrier did not initially tell investigators that the teen had swung the bat at his head, police reports obtained by the Tribune show.

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