Fallen Coos Co. Deputy to be Added to Memorial, Jan. 29

As Thursday morning’s, Jan. 28, quarterly meeting, the Board on Public Safety Standards and Training (BPSST) unanimously approved the addition of Deputy Gil Datan’s name to the Oregon Fallen Law Enforcement Officer Memorial during the State’s ceremony on May 3, 2016 at 1:00 pm. This request came to the Board with a unanimous recommendation from its Police Policy Committee. Deputy Datan’s name will be the 182nd on the memorial that honors fallen Oregon law enforcement officers who have died in the line of duty since the first was recorded in the 1880s. The memorial honors the sacrifices made by law enforcement officers across Oregon and the families and co-workers they left behind. It includes city, county, state, tribal and federal officers who work in law enforcement, corrections and parole and probation. Additional information Oregon Fallen Law Enforcement Officer Memorial http://www.oregon.gov/DPSST/AT/pages/olememorial.aspx Incident Overview: Deputy Gil Datan, age 43, of the Coos County Sheriff’s Office died while he was on forest patrol on April 20, 2015. Deputy Datan was attempting to go up a steep embankment on his ATV, when it rolled over. Datan was thrown off, and the ATV landed on its side on top of him. Datan was unable to free himself or call for help. Datan was found by a search team at 9:45 PM in rugged terrain between three and five miles from where he parked his sheriff’s office pick-up truck. Part of Datan’s assignment as a timber deputy was to patrol timber lands between the Green Acres and Sumner Road area, which is very rough in places. The sheriff’s office has several contracts with agencies including the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, and private timber property owners to patrol their properties. Datan started his law enforcement career in Coos County with the Myrtle Point Police Department in 1996. A year later, he served with the North Bend Police Department. He also worked for the Confederated Tribal Police Department and Reedsport Police Department, before he was hired as a deputy sheriff in Coos County in 2009. Datan is credited with being an integral part in the arrest of at least two homicide suspects. Datan was previously on a two-year rotation as a detective with the South Coast Interagency Narcotics Team, before he was assigned to be a timber deputy within the last few months.