“Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been thinking back at things that happened while I was here. I’ve been thinking about happy times and tragic moments.”

Gardendale Police Lieutenant Chuck Denham said those words on Tuesday, his last day of a 20-year career with the Gardendale Police Department.

Denham began working with the Gardendale Police Department on July 16, 1991. While there, he has dabbled in a variety of jobs, including detective, patrol, and administrative work.

The first time Denham ever thought about doing police work was when he was a young boy. He and his family was returning home from a trip to his grandmother’s house, and his father was pulled over by an officer for speeding.

“I remember thinking he was cool. He got out of his car and walked over to ours, and his shoes were shiny and he had his hat on,” he said. “I could see that my dad respected him, even though he was getting a ticket. That was the first time I though, ‘man, I want to do that.’”

Denham was raised in Fultondale, spent a few years living in Morris, and finally settled in Gardendale, where he’s lived for about 18 years. His children and grandchildren also live locally, and he said he plans to spend more time with his grandchildren now that he’s retiring.

“When you’re young, you have all these plans in your head that you’re going to move to a place where it’s really nice and sunshiny all the time. But as you get older, you see that your roots are deeper than you thought. I can’t stand the idea of moving away from my grandkids,” he said.

Denham’s favorite part of his time on the force is the relationships he formed with his co-workers. He credits dispatchers and young, new police officers, who often work night and weekend shifts, and as the front lines of police work.

“There’s been a lot of people who walked this path before me. I’ve learned a lot from them, and I’ve built relationships with these guys. It made me appreciate the work,” he said. “I’ve spent, at minimum, eight hours a day with these people. It’s what I’m going to miss the most.”

Denham says he doesn’t like being the center of attention and has worked behind the scenes at a desk in an office for a while, but he remembers being a new officer.

“In those years, the economy wasn’t good and most police departments just weren’t hiring. I worked for a company for a while, and I got laid off. I remember driving home and trying to come up with a way to tell my wife that I didn’t have a job anymore, and as I walked in the door the phone rang and it was the police department telling me to come in for an interview,” he said. “I really appreciate my wife and kids, who had to put up with weekend and night shifts and my occasional bad mood that came with the job.”

He started his new job as an officer a couple of days later; it wasn’t with Gardendale police, but it wasn’t long before he made the move.

Denham always appreciated the successes the department had; he said it was always a good feeling with they solved a case and made an arrest, or found a lost child or any number of small victories.

Denham in particular remembers a case from a few years ago when the now-closed Colonial Bank was robbed. While working off of a lead, he and other officers drove by a suspect’s house while the suspect just happened to be driving out of his driveway. The officers made the arrest on the spot.

“Stuff gets done by working with other police departments and the public,” said Denham.

Of course, police work has its tragedies, too. The case Denham worked on that impacted him the most was the 2008 shooting death of 25-year-old Rufina Granados Gutierrez, who was shot outside Habaneros restaurant. Denham said he regrets that the department wasn’t able to make an arrest in the case before his retirement.

Denham also works part-time as director of security at Gardendale First Baptist Church, and volunteers to keep up with statistics at Gardendale High School football, baseball and basketball games. He said he would probably work somewhere else in the future, although he probably won’t take up law enforcement again.

“Don’t even consider working in law enforcement unless you believe you’ll love the job,” he said. “And always make time for your family.”