Two officers from the Dalton Police Department were honored with the agency’s Life Saving Award Tuesday morning at the monthly meeting of the Dalton Public Safety Commission. Officers Josh Bethune and Benjamin Porter were honored for their efforts during a rescue call in August.
Officers were dispatched to Park Canyon Apartments on Aug. 22 to a call of an older man who was unconscious and not breathing. Officers Bethune and Porter arrived on scene and found the patient had no pulse and was not breathing. The officers began performing CPR on the patient. After performing several rounds of CPR, the patient regained a faint pulse and was turned over to emergency medical technicians who had arrived on scene. The patient was then transported to the hospital.
Though the patient eventually passed away, the police department is proud of the life-saving efforts of the officers who were able to help give him a fighting chance.
The Dalton Fire Department presented four firefighters for promotion on Tuesday morning. Keith Dempsey and Matt Daniel were promoted to the rank of captain while Casey Jones and Dwayne Pangle were promoted to engineer. All four promotions were confirmed by unanimous 3-0 vote of the Public Safety Commission (Commissioners Keith Whitworth and Kenneth Willis were not in attendance).
Captain Keith Dempsey joined the Dalton Fire Department in 2003 and has been working his way up through the ranks ever since, most recently being promoted to coordinator of the Training Division in July 2017. Captain Dempsey holds a master’s degree in fire and emergency management administration from Oklahoma State University and holds an executive fire officer designation from the National Fire Academy. He is a graduate of the rigorous FLAMES (Firefighters Laboring And Mastering Essential Skills) training program.
Captain Matt Daniel also joined the DFD in 2003. He has been the coordinator of the Preventions Division since November 2017. In that role, Captain Daniel has implemented new schedules for fire inspections, an electronic inspection program, and many other procedures to make the division more efficient and productive.
Engineer Dwayne Pangle joined the DFD in January 2013 and has been a firefighter since March 2005. He was promoted to the rank of Firefighter II in January 2017. He is also a graduate of the FLAMES program.
Engineer Casey Jones has been a firefighter since 2009 and joined the Dalton Fire Department in January 2013. Chief Todd Pangle noted Tuesday morning that Mr. Jones’ supervisors have complemented his competency and expansive skill set in recommending him for promotion.