DALTON -- Police and firefighters here recently have served in situations not normally associated with towns this size.
Their work was recognized Tuesday at the Public Safety Commission meeting.
Dalton Police Chief Jason Parker named Officer Matthew Lowery the city's police officer of the year in part for saving a 4-year-old girl who'd been reported missing in Bartow County in November. He and other officers surrounded a van and found the child inside. They arrested the baby-sitter who had taken the girl.
Officer Lowery said he was "flattered" that his fellow officers nominated him. He credited the five other officers who responded to the Fifth Avenue apartment complex after someone called in a description of the suspect's van.
Eleven Dalton firefighters who are part of the Georgia Search and Rescue Task Force Team 6 assisted Atlanta emergency workers shoring up a collapsed parking deck in June.
Dalton Fire Department training coordinator Keith Dempsey showed photographs of the wreckage where five floors of the parking deck in Midtown Atlanta collapsed June 29, crushing cars and upending vehicles but resulting in no serious injury.
The GSAR team members worked two 12-hour shifts to build support structures that held more than 50,000 pounds of concrete and cars in place to prevent further damage.
GSAR team members train often at the Dalton Fire Department. They practiced responding to a building during this year's training.
"How fortunate we are to have this kind of expertise in our community and how fortunate we can offer this to other communities," said Bill Weaver, commission chairman.
Todd South covers courts and the military for the Times Free Press. He has worked at the paper for three years and previously covered crime and safety in Southeast Tennessee and North Georgia. Todd’s hometown is Dodge City, Kan. He served five years in the U.S. Marine Corps and deployed to Iraq before returning to school for his journalism degree from the University of Georgia. Todd previously worked at the Anniston (Ala.) Star. Contact Todd ...
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