Dalton Officers Honored For Life-Saving Effort

Tuesday, February 28th, 2023

The Dalton Police Department honored three of its officers on Tuesday with the agency's Life Saving Award. The award was presented at the monthly meeting of the Dalton Public Safety Commission to Lieutenant Michael Houck and Officers Steven Johnson and Keith Black.

Caption: Assistant Chief Chris Crossen (left) stands with Officers Keith Black (center) and Steven Johnson (right) after presenting their Life Saving Awards at Tuesday's Public Safety Commission meeting (Lieutenant Houck was unable to attend the meeting)

The award was presented to the officers based on their actions during a call on December 12th, 2022 at the Super 8 motel. The 911 center dispatched a call of a man on site who was not breathing and was unresponsive. Dalton officers were first to arrive on scene and quickly took life-saving action. 

"When they got there, they met with the man’s wife who had been trying to do CPR on him. They got her settled and they got him into a position to start doing CPR and they hooked up an AED (automated external defibrillator) to him and the AED shocked him and they continued CPR," said DPD Assistant Chief Chris Crossen. "When they first checked him, he had no pulse and he wasn’t breathing. By the time EMS or fire got there, they had gotten his pulse back and he was breathing."

"When they later checked on him at Hamilton (Medical Center), he had stablized," Crossen continued. 

"It takes a lot of courage to be able to pull that training up and use it at the appropriate time," said Terry Mathis, one of the members of the Public Safety Commission. "We certainly appreciate all of (their) efforts and I know that man certainly appreciates it."