Excerpts from the ChicagoTribune.com:

Aurora Police Chief Kristen Ziman and Aurora Fire Chief Gary Krienitz [recently] answered questions from the public and talked about their departments during an event at the Aurora Public Library’s Eola Road Branch. Ziman and Krienitz graduated from West Aurora High School and Waubonsie Valley High School, respectively, and rose through the ranks of their agencies.

Ziman was in a rare position to be able to appoint her command staff when she came on board as chief earlier this year. The command staff oversees the work of three bureaus for patrol, investigations, and support services at the department.

Ziman leads a department of 289 sworn police officers and a civilian workforce that handles administrative operations. She said while having a safe and peaceful community is their top priority, she saw a need to do more in areas that would promote community engagement and build trust between the public and Police Department.

Krienitz is in his 20th year with the Aurora Fire Department. He oversees the second-largest fire department in the state with 195 sworn firefighters. Krienitz was also in a position to appoint a new command staff when he took over as chief earlier this year. He said the department has nine stations. Krienitz said the city has reached a level to add its seventh advanced life support ambulance at Station 7 on the city’s West Side.

“It’s been 19 years since we put another ambulance in service. Our population has doubled in the city of Aurora, and our call volume has doubled. Next year we will be putting another medic ambulance in service to help ease the call volume, which is approaching 15,000 calls per year — 14,000 of those are EMS paramedic calls,” Krienitz said.

thanks Dan