Lieutenant Trey Morrell won’t lie — he’ll miss his career at the South Carolina Department of Public Safety, more than half of which was spent administering polygraph examinations to prospective troopers and officers.

“I was always around troopers, ever since I was knee-high,” said Morrell, whose father was a tow truck operator and often took him to collision scenes. “What piqued my interest was that uniform. The professionalism was something you can’t replicate anywhere else. I knew I had to be a part of something like that.”

Years later, Morrell’s brother-in-law, who was working as a Darlington County sheriff’s deputy before later joining the Highway Patrol, invited Morrell to ride with him a few times. That’s when he “caught the law enforcement bug.”

After graduating from the South Carolina Criminal Justice Academy in December 2000, Morrell was assigned to Darlington County as a trooper until 2011, when he was promoted to the DPS Headquarters in Blythewood as a recruiter. It was there that a polygraph examiner position later opened.

“I never thought to pursue the polygraph field, but something about it interested me and I went for it,” said Morrell. “The Lord opened doors for me to scoot on in there.”

DPS administers polygraph examinations to all prospective law enforcement officers and dispatchers as part of the application process.

“There’s a lot of respect for this uniform and profession. We need to have people in this uniform who are worthy of that respect,” Morrell said. “As an examiner, we need to make sure the people who wear the uniforms are the best. I need to make sure I’m doing my job the best I can.”

After attending a 12-week polygraph training program in Georgia, Morrell had to administer 150 polygraph tests overseen by the State Law Enforcement Division before getting certified. The entire process took more than a year and was no cakewalk, Morrell said.

The examiner looks for the vital signs: sweat glands, blood pressure, and heart rate of the examinee. After establishing a baseline of these vitals, they can differentiate between a lie and nerves.

“Taking a polygraph, it’s like a DVD player,” Morrell said. “You can hit rewind and fast-forward, but you can’t delete something — same thing with life. You can’t just delete it or your experiences. We know the test is nerve-wracking, so our goal is to alleviate that stress.”

Over the past 13 years, Morrell has conducted roughly 2,500 polygraph exams to ensure only the best and most qualified people join the ranks of the Highway Patrol, the State Transport Police, and the Bureau of Protective Services.

“I was in the right place at the right time when that position opened, and I don’t say that lightly,” said Morrell. “The Lord has blessed me, and I give him all of the glory.”

Morrell found himself in the right place and the right time more than once in his career. He was patrolling the roads one March day in 2002 in Darlington County when a call came in about a vehicle involved in a suspected kidnapping. No sooner did the description of the suspect’s vehicle go out when Morrell saw that very same vehicle passing him and found himself turning around to initiate a stop.

“It looked like he was trying to hurt somebody in the back seat,” Morrell recalled of driving behind the SUV. “And I could see there was a baby’s car seat in the back.”

The SUV eventually stopped, and Morrell, along with city and county law enforcement, arrested the man, whose estranged wife was found with multiple stab wounds in the back seat, along with their 1-year-old daughter, who was unharmed. The mother died, and he was sentenced to 30 years in prison for manslaughter.

“I’ll remember that until the day I die,” said Morrell, who will carry that and countless other memories and experiences into retirement on January 2.

While he looks forward to spending more time with his wife and his two daughters, it’s not the end of his working days. He’ll be going back into the family business — the same tow truck business that introduced him to the South Carolina Highway Patrol so many years ago.

“I recommend anyone that wants to get into a law enforcement career to do so,” said Morrell. “It’s been a rewarding career, and I’ll miss it dearly.”