Officers Promoted And Re-Certification Granted To DPD At May PSC Meeting

Two officers were promoted to new positions at Tuesday morning’s meeting of the Dalton Public Safety Commission.  

Chris Cooke’s promotion to the rank of captain and his appointment as commander of the patrol division was approved by a unanimous 3-0 vote of the commission (PSC members Carlos Calderin and Kenneth Willis did not attend Tuesday morning’s meeting).

Captain Cooke has served the Dalton Police Department since 1996 and has risen through the ranks from patrol officer.  Most recently, Captain Cooke served as a lieutenant as planning and research manager. He has also served with the department’s traffic unit, drug unit, as an operations supervisor, and as a district commander in the patrol division. He has a master’s degree in public administration from Columbus State University as well as a bachelor’s degree in management from Covenant College.

Woody Cantrell was promoted to the rank of sergeant by a unanimous 3-0 vote of the commission.  Sergeant Cantrell has served the agency since 2002.  Sergeant Cantrell’s most recent assignment was with the department’s traffic unit, where he was instrumental in developing the Car-Fit program for senior citizens and led the way to the department winning several state and national highway safety awards including winning the Governor’s Challenge of the Georgia Governor’s Office of Highway in 2014.  Sergeant Cantrell will now serve as a patrol shift supervisor.

The Dalton Police Department’s re-certification from the Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police  was also presented at the meeting. The agency has been a state certified law enforcement agency since 1999 and was granted its 4th re-certification on February 1.

The certification process runs on a three-year cycle and utilizes outside assessors from professional law enforcement agencies to closely examine a department’s policies and procedures to ensure the agency is maintaining a high level of commitment to excellence in the profession.  The GACP assessment team visited the Dalton Police Department in the fall of 2014 to perform an on-site inspection and awarded re-certification to the agency in 2015.  Out of more than 700 law enforcement agencies in Georgia, the DPD is one of only 103 state certified agencies.  The Dalton Police Department was one of the first to earn certification in 1999. This re-certification runs through 2018.  

Chief Billy Grogan of the Dunwoody Police Department represented the GACP at Tuesday morning’s meeting and presented the agency with a plaque marking the agency’s most recent certification.

The Dalton Public Safety Commission is comprised of Chairman William B. Weaver, Carlos Calderin, Terry Mathis, Keith Whitworth, and Kenneth E. Willis.