Cloudy / 57° F
City Servant Spotlight: Sgt. Doug Setliff, Pelham Police Department
Published 2:25pm Wednesday, August 26, 2009By AUSTIN PHILLIPS / City Editor
Pelham Police Sgt. Doug Setliff has worked for the department for eight years, but his experience in law enforcement dates back more than 17 years.
Setliff started out his civil servant career in the emergency medical field, but quickly realized protecting and serving people was what he wanted to do.
“I just happened to see a lot of my friends that I had grown up with who were in law enforcement and the more I saw them and saw what they were handling prior to us getting there, it just really impressed me on what they were doing,” Setliff said.
Setliff said as cliché as it sounds, he got into the field for the opportunity to help people.
And help people, he has.
Just recently, Setliff came upon a distraught couple in the road on Shelby County 52 near the tanks. The woman, who was crying, was standing in the road.
“The first thing I thought was they are having a dispute,” Setliff said.
But that wasn’t the case.
The woman had lost her engagement ring, and Setliff was able to assist the couple, while also keeping them safe from traffic. The ring was found, unscratched, on the double yellow lines.
“That’s kind of the prize for it all,” Setliff said.
But Setliff’s job isn’t always about helping people. Sometimes, it can be about helping animals.
One of the oddest things to ever happen to Setliff while on duty was on a response to a trailer fire.
While at the scene, Setliff had to assist another officer give CPR to two Vietnamese potbelly pigs that were suffering from smoke inhalation.
Setliff and the other officer were successful, and the two pigs lived.
But whether it’s people or animals, Setliff has found Pelham to be a phenomenal place to work because of the people he serves.
“The community is great. People still wave at you with all five fingers,” Setliff said with a laugh. “There are here for us as much as we are here for them. The small-town mentality is still there.”
Setliff is married to wife Christy, and the two have one daughter, 3-year-old Hannah.
