The Dalton Police Department is celebrating its first ever win in the Governor’s Challenge. The annual competition sponsored by the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety honors outstanding achievement in traffic safety education and enforcement. Dalton finished first in Category 4 which includes agencies comprised of between 51 and 100 officers.
Competing agencies are judged each year for enforcement programs, educational initiatives, and public information efforts in three categories: occupant safety, speed enforcement, and DUI detection/prevention. During the past year, the DPD expanded its Traffic Enforcement Unit (TEU) from two officers to four. The TEU has engaged in several education campaigns in Dalton’s schools to inform students about distracted driving and driving under the influence. The TEU has also employed an electronic message board positioned along different Dalton roads to project different traffic safety messages. While the TEU is focused on traffic issues, the efforts of the department’s patrol division as a whole contributed to the different education and enforcement initiatives and their efforts are recognized by this award.
This is the Dalton Police Department’s 14th year taking part in the Governor’s Challenge and the agency has seven second place finishes and four third place finishes. This is the first time that the department has taken top honors. In addition to being honored at Wednesday’s banquet in Macon, the agency wins a $4,000 grant which can be used to purchase equipment from the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety.