The 3rd Annual Police Officers and Firefighters' Benefit Dinner was a big success on Monday night at the Dalton Depot Restaurant. Organizers haven't calculated the final tally yet, but estimate that the dinner raised approximately $8,000 for the City of Dalton Public Safety Scholarship Endowment at Dalton State College. Each year, the scholarship is awarded to the child of a Dalton Police Officer or Dalton Firefighter attending Dalton State College.
The DPD and DFD thank everyone who came out to make the night a success.
To watch video from the event, click "Play" in the window below (video may take a few moments to load).
When you go to bed tonight, you likely won't be thinking of the police officers who are patrolling the streets in an effort to keep your family safe. But as your night's ending, the day's just beginning for third shift officers from the Dalton Police Department.
Every six months, officers rotate between the three duty shifts in the patrol division. Third shift starts every night at 10:15 and runs until 7:15 in the morning. It may not sound like a fun assignment, given that officers work all night and sleep during the day. But several officers say that they prefer the night shift because of the type of work that they get to do. In short, a lot of the action happens at night.
If you want to get a taste of what life's like on the night shift, click "Play" in the video below and come along for the ride.
The 2010 National Night Out Public Safety Fair at the North Georgia Fair Grounds was a success, with organizers estimating nearly 500 people came through the gates to spend time with employees from public safety agencies from across Whitfield County.
The Dalton Police Department thanks everyone who came out to support the event, and sends a special thank you to Outback Steakhouse for providing free hot dogs to visitors for the third straight year.
To watch video from this year's event, click "Play" in the window below (video may take a few moments to load).
Crash statistics show that the stretch of Shugart Road between Waugh Street and US Highway 41 has one of the highest accident rates in the City of Dalton. In fact, statistics show that the Shugart Road/Waugh Street and Shugart Road/US 41 intersections are among the most dangerous in the city.
In the video below, Sergeant Daniel Nicholson from the Dalton Police Department gives you some tips on how to stay safe on Shugart Road.
Click "Play" in the window below to watch the video (video may take a few moments to load, to view in higher quality, click on the 360p button and select 480p).
Georgia drivers marking their calendars for their Fourth of July celebrations should make another note…it’s time to buckle up in pickup trucks. By the Fourth of July, the new state law requiring the use of seat belts in pickup trucks will be in effect in Georgia. The new law actually goes into effect on July 1st. Why buckle up in your pickup truck? When worn correctly, seatbelts have proven to reduce the risk of fatal injury to front-seat light truck occupants by 60% and as much as 80% in the event of a rollover crash. Plus, now it's the law.
Even before this new law goes into effect, the Dalton Police Department will be hard at work cracking down on seat belt violators. The DPD Traffic Enforcement Unit, along with the Patrol Division, will step up enforcement of Georgia’s safety belt and child restraint laws, in conjunction with the nationwide “Click it or Ticket” campaign which runs from May 24th through June 6th. The nationwide traffic enforcement campaign includes the upcoming Memorial Day weekend. “Click It or Ticket” is a nationwide enforcement campaign to increase safety belt usage and reduce the number of serious injury or fatal car crashes.
This year, the Dalton Police Department will also be focusing on safety belt usage at night with night-time enforcement details. This comes after safety experts studied nationwide fatality stats and discovered unbuckled crash deaths are more frequent at night. The alarming nationwide nighttime highway death toll in 2008 claimed the lives of 12,671 Americans. Nearly two-thirds (64%) of those who died were NOT wearing their seat belts at the time of the crashes.
As always, the Dalton Police Department is asking all motorists to, Slow Down, Buckle Up, and Drive Sober to reduce serious injury car crashes.
Click "Play" in the window below to watch a video on the Click It or Ticket campaign (video may take a few moments to load, to view in higher quality, click on the 360p button and select 480p).
Officers from the Dalton Police Department joined with deputies from the Whitfield County Sheriff's Office to participate in the 2010 Law Enforcement Torch Run on Tuesday morning, running a course that spanned nine miles and finished at the Gordon County line.
The effort was a fundraiser in support of Special Olympics Georgia. The statewide goal is for law enforcement agencies to raise $750,000 for the Special Olympics, and the Dalton Police Department's fundraising effort contributed nearly $1,000.
On Tuesday morning, the officers left the Municipal Court Building's parking lot across the street from the Police Services Center and ran past a cheering crowd at City Park Elementary and down Thornton Avenue to Bryman's Plaza. From there, they boarded a bus to ride to the South Bypass, where they ran to Highway 41 and Valley Point Elementary School. From Valley Point, they ran to the county line.
Click "Play" in the window below to watch a video of the Law Enforcement Torch Run (video may take a few moments to load, to view in higher quality, click on the 360p button and select 480p).
The Dalton Police Department's 2010 Citizens' Police Academy wrapped up on Tuesday night with a graduation banquet held at Ryman Hall. The banquet, catered by the Filling Station restaurant on Hamilton Street. Each participant in the Citizens' Academy was invited to take part and bring along their family.
The evening started with a short speech by program coordinator Sergeant Mike Dyer, followed by an invocation by Chaplain Ray McCranie. After dinner was served, Chief Jason Parker greeted the class and then was joined on the stage by Assistant Chief Truman Whitfield, Sergeant Dyer, and Public Safety Commission Chairman Bill Weaver (who completed his second Citizens' Academy on Tuesday night) to hand out diplomas.
Applications will be taken for the next Citizens' Academy class this winter. Keep checking the Dalton Police Blog for details.
Click "Play" in the window below for a video from Tuesday night's graduation banquet (video may take a few moments to load, for higher quality mouse over the "360p" tab and select "480p")
It's wouldn't be a good idea for a suspect to try to run from Dalton Police Chief Jason Parker.
Parker, who has served as Dalton's Police Chief since 2007, is an avid runner in his spare time. He runs with a running group several times a week, and he's active in the Carpet Capital Running Club. Over the past 13 years he has run in numerous 5K and 10K races, and in the last two years he's run in four half-marathons. For the last three months, though, he has been training for something bigger: his first marathon.
On Saturday, April 24th, Chief Parker ran in the 2010 Country Music Marathon on Saturday in Nashville, Tennessee. He fell six miles short of the 26.2 mile marathon distance, though, due to forces beyond his control. The system of strong storms that battered the southeast over the weekend hit Nashville late Saturday morning, bringing heavy rains, strong winds, and tornado warnings that forced organizers to divert most of the marathon runners off of the course before they could finish. Chief Parker was still running strong when he was forced to leave the course after running 20.2 miles.
"Weather always plays a part," said Chief Parker of his experience running the marathon. "It was hot to start with, at least for us ... at the end, we had a pretty strong thunderstorm move through and it kinda moved us off the course."
Still, Chief Parker doesn't regret making the trip.
"It was a good experience for my first marathon, and we'd trained and prepared, and we felt like we were ready," Chief Parker said.
And, there was plenty of entertainment along the way. Nashville is known as the "Music City", and many musical acts were set up along the race course to entertain runners and fans alike.
"Most of them were pretty good, too," Parker said of the bands playing along the way. "In fact, I don't know if they were recording artists or not, but they were pretty impressive."
Parker also said there were plenty of people wearing strange costumes along the race course, including one person wearing an Easter Bunny costume, and two men jogging alongside the runners in three-piece suits.
Chief Parker did get his finisher's medal from Saturday's race, but he plans to add another to his collection soon. Parker's running club is targeting the Chickamauga Battlefield Marathon in Fort Oglethorpe for his next attempt at 26.2. The Battlefield Marathon will be run November 13th.
Hopefully, the weather will be nicer.
Click "Play" in the window below to watch a video of Chief Parker discussing his experience running the Country Music Marathon
Click here to read more about the Country Music Marathon.
There were several officer-involved shootings on Tuesday night at the Dalton Police Department, but none of them really happened. Members of the department's 2010 Citizens' Police Academy class were simply taking their turn with the FATS machine, which stands for Firearms Training Simulator.
Tuesday night's lesson the use of force, including the laws that govern the use of force by both law enforcement officers and citizens, culminated with a demonstration of the FATS machine, which uses replicas of the guns and tasers used by department officers which have been converted for use as a simulator. Officers are shown different video scenarios which are projected on a screen. The simulation is controlled by an officer operating the computer, choosing how the characters on screen react based on the officer's decisions. If the officer fires a weapon, the computer records hits on the screen.
Tuesday night, the members of the Citizens' Academy learned first-hand how fast things can go bad on a traffic stop, or any other law enforcement scenario. In experiencing some of the same training scenarios faced by Dalton officers, they learned about some of the tough decisions police officers hope they'll never have to make. The decision to use deadly force is one that most law enforcement officers will go their entire careers without facing. But it's one that they constantly train and prepare for.
To watch video of Tuesday night's Citizens' Police Academy class, click "Play" in the window below (video may take a few moments to load).
Update: The class is now full. Please stay tuned for updates on future classes.
The Dalton Police Department will host another session of the popular RAD Systems Women's Self Defense Class in May. Previous sessions of this class, taught by Dalton Police Training Officer Brian Pack, have been well-received by the women taking the course both at the Dalton Police Services Center and also Dalton State College.
The next session of the 12-hour course will be held in three-hour segments on Wednesday and Thursday evenings, May 19th, 20th, 26th, and 27th from 6-9 PM at the Engine Room Restaurant. The Engine Room is located at 1525 Waring Road in Dalton. The course is being offered free of charge. The class size is limited to 20 participants, and the course is designed for women ages 13 and up. However, any women younger than age 18 must have a parent or guardian sign a waiver to participate.
The program is for women only – wives, mothers, daughters, sisters, girlfriends – and all who successfully complete the course will have a lifetime return policy allowing them to participate in any R.A.D System program to refresh their skills at any time. The 12-hour course educates women on safety strategies to minimize their chances of becoming a victim, and physical tactics aimed at disabling an attacker long enough to escape.
Officer Pack, certified in the R.A.D System of Self Defense, will wear a padded “Red Man” suit for some of the exercises which allow the women to practice defensive maneuvers they have learned in the class without the fear of injuring the instructor.
“Our ultimate goal is to promote safety and build confidence,” said Officer Pack. “Our hope is that no one will ever have to use the skills they’ll learn in this class, but we want them to feel safe wherever they go.
“We’re not teaching people how to fight, but to have some skills they can use to create enough of a diversion to create distance and get away if they ever find themselves in a dangerous situation,” he said.
Anyone with any questions about the course can contact Officer Pack at 706-278-9085, extension 138 or by email at bpack@cityofdalton-ga.gov.
To watch a video about the Dalton Police Department's RAD Women's Self-Defense Class, click "Play" in the window below (video may take a few moments to load). You can also click here to read an article about the course in the Chattanooga Times-Free Press
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