EASLEY – Sgt. Chad Harrelson of the Easley Police Department followed in his father’s footsteps by pursuing a career in uniform.
“My intentions to get in law enforcement started in high school,” Harrelson said. “My dad was a Pickens County Deputy for ten years and that opened my eyes to it.”
Harrelson is a lifelong resident of Pickens County and is a 2004 graduate of Easley High School.
While in high school, Harrelson participated in the Explorer Program.
“I was involved in the Explorer Program,” Harrelson said. “I was able to ride with deputies and actually see what goes on. I fell in love with it from there.”
The Explorer Program was created to prepare young adults ages 14 to 21 for a career in law enforcement.
Harrelson said that the Explorer Program prepared him for a career in law enforcement.
Immediately following high school, Harrelson began his career in law enforcement as a dispatcher for the Pickens County Sheriff’s Office where he remained until he joined the Easley Police Department in 2007.
Harrelson began his career in Easley as a road patrol officer and graduated from the South Carolina Criminal Justice Academy in January of 2008.
Harrelson was promoted to master patrol officer in January of 2010 and to sergeant in September of 2011.
Harrelson said there is good and bad qualities to policing his hometown community.
“It has its good and it’s bad,” Harrelson said. “The bad part is you know everyone here. I’ve arrested several people I went to high school with and I have given tickets to people I grew up with or go to church with, but that is just the bad side of it. The good side is you get to help the people you know, the people you go to church with, or the people you went to school with.”
Harrelson said that it is a give and take thing when working his hometown.
He is data master certified and is also certified in DUI detection.
Harrelson is a married father of one.
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