I’ve always thought police officers were a different breed — fearless, brave individuals with a sense of duty to their community.

It’s not a career you step into lightly.

It will never pay you as much as you deserve. It comes with a risky lifestyle that may get you killed, and it’s an around-the-clock kind of job.

That’s why I can respect someone who has done it for longer than I have been alive.

Capt. Dewey Smith, Capt. Dorothy “Dot” Trotter, Sheriff David Stone and Assistant Sheriff Tim Morgan all announced their retirement from the Pickens County Sheriff’s Office at the beginning of the new year, and for the surrounding community in Pickens County, it feels like we’re losing a lot.

It takes a lot of commitment to hang with a job for over 40 years, like most of these individuals have. For those of you that have had personal contact with any one of them, however, you know exactly why they do what they do.

Each one leaves a legacy that is bigger than themselves.

Through growth, change and hard times, the Pickens County Sheriff’s Office and those who represent it have been able to maintain solid service to communities that desperately need them.

These aren’t your normal everyday workers.

They work the job that nobody else wants to do. They respond to the dangerous calls at 3 a.m. They put their neck on the line so that you can feel safe.

The neatest thing about these folks is that if you ask them why they have had such a successful career, each person points to the next. The sheriff’s office embodies what a community should look like. People who work together for the good of everyone.

That’s what Dewey Smith, Dot Trotter, Tim Morgan and David Stone have done for so many years, and hopefully we can take a lesson or two from them.