Preserving history: Dalton Police Department collecting artifacts

Published 2:30 pm Wednesday, January 3, 2024

It’s hard to believe that the Dalton Police Department was once comprised of just two officers with a $900 annual budget.

Times have certainly changed, with today’s internationally accredited and state certified DPD now consisting of positions for 91 sworn officers and a $10 million annual budget. During the past few years, though, echoes and reminders of the department’s earlier days have been becoming more apparent. An initiative led by Chief Cliff Cason has seen the department collecting more artifacts from its past and doing more to preserve the agency’s history. Some of those old badges, patches and photographs are now on display around the Dalton Police Services Center.

“When we started trying to go back and look at the history of the department, we weren’t really able to find a lot (of pictures or items from the department),” Cason said. “Nobody previously had been the gatekeeper in holding those items and storing them so we could have them later. So, what we’ve had to do now is try to go back and reach out to retired employees and their families to try to get these items and it’s something that we are embracing now, going back and telling our story of when we started back in the 1840s to where we are now in 2023 going into 2024.”

Framed displays of old badges and uniform patches now hang outside of the chief’s office alongside reproductions of old newspaper accounts of police stories from the early 20th century. Black and white photos of the lineage of former police chiefs are also on display there, and pictures of officers from the 1930s and 1940s hang in the hallways around the building alongside photos of their 21st century counterparts.

“We’ve had some former officers come by and talk about some of the photos that are hanging up and (they’ve explained) what they are and who some of the people were,” said Assistant Chief Chris Crossen. “Knowing where you came from helps you know where you’re going. And you look at the successes of the past and failures of the past … it’s neat to look at but it’s also good to know what the history of the department has been and put a little of that back out there.”

Some of the research into the department’s history has led to long overdue recognition for one of the department’s fallen officers. The DPD has long acknowledged the legacy of the late Chief William Hannah who was killed in the line of duty in 1899 and the late Officer Maurice W. Phillips Sr. who died in an accidental shooting in 1956. In researching some of the department’s history, however, the forgotten story of a third slain officer was rediscovered. Last year, current DPD Detective Chris Tucker found old newspaper clippings that told the story of Officer Harry L. Cook, who was shot and killed on July 27, 1913, when responding to a report of domestic violence. Tucker worked to have Cook’s story added to the Officer Down Memorial Page, an internet database honoring fallen police officers.

“(We learned the story) just from going back and looking back through old historical newspapers, and we will actually have (Officer Cook) put on the memorial wall in Washington, D.C., next May during Police Week and on the Georgia memorial wall,” Crossen said.

In 2024, Dalton’s officers will also be wearing a reminder of the agency’s history as the department debuts a new uniform patch inspired by a design worn in the 1970s. The new patch is nearly identical to that older version which was provided by a retired DPD captain. Department leaders are hoping that more former officers or their families might be willing to share artifacts from the department’s past.

“Now as we run into some of the folks that say ‘Oh, my grandfather worked at the police department back in the ’50s’ we’re asking them if they have any of those materials that they would be willing to let us borrow so we can have them digitized,” Cason said. “And we’re printing them on canvases or doing other things with them so we can put them up on the wall. We’re trying to tell the stories of some of those folks because if we don’t do it now, if you wait another decade, then it will be even harder to go back and tell those stories.”

“If you’ve got a family member who you know was a former Dalton police officer somewhere back through history, if you have any of their things, pictures from their time as an officer or an officer’s badge, any of that sort of thing — we don’t have to keep it, but we’d love to have a picture of it or a copy of it,” Crossen added. “And if you’d like us to be the caretakers of it, we certainly can do that, too, and put some of those things on display because it’s fun to walk by and see and stop and look at and think about the people who came before you who kind of led you to where you are now.”

Members of the public are able to view these historic items at the Police Services Center during normal business hours by asking an employee if they can be escorted to view what is on display. The building is at 301 Jones St. near downtown.