The Associated Press

VALDOSTA - For Sgt. Kyle Salter and his wife, Lt. Shannon Salter, stress is a part of their daily grind, but they manage to find balance in their professional lives as well as their personal ones.

Kyle, with the Valdosta Police Department, and Shannon, with the new Valdosta/Lowndes Crime Lab, approach their jobs one day at a time, and although some of their duties differ, they share the same common goal: protecting the citizens of Valdosta.

Kyle was born and raised in Tifton. He did not come from a line of law-enforcement officers, but his grandfather is a former fire chief. He has been with the Valdosta Police Department for 10 years, but said he wavered between career choices.

"I struggled between being a teacher or going into law enforcement," he said.

Although he chose law enforcement, he still keeps the door open for teaching after he retires.

"I would like to teach at the (police) academy in Tifton, Atlanta, Savannah or maybe even outside of Georgia," he said. "There's just no better feeling than helping people. Until you get that chance, you just don't know."

Helping people is just one of the upsides to Kyle's job. He said his co-workers make it easy to come to work each day, and when a criminal has been taken off the street, everyone is happy.

The high points to law enforcement are often blanketed by the trials brought on by the criminals. Kyle talked about some of the cons to being in law.

"The phone rings all times of the night," he said.

"Knowing that crime is going on and you can't prevent it because you don't know about it is also troubling."

As a sergeant at the police department, his daily job consists of being one of three supervisors on call for hostage negotiations, assigning cases to detectives, reviewing all cases, handling complaints, supervising the police reports and handling a lot of paperwork, just to name a few. With all the tasks he faces, Kyle said he would not be able to do his job, and the department would not be as successful as it is, without the team of men and women.

"I will put them up against any team," he said. "They literally work around the clock to ensure the safety of the citizens."

Kyle also gave kudos to the community in which he serves. He said it's important to have open communication with the public.

"We are doing the very best we can, but we cannot solve any crime on our own," he said. "We need the assistance of the citizens. They're the ones who see and hear what we don't."

With the dangers that come with his career choice, he said he relies on God for help and guidance.

"I couldn't do anything without Him," he said.

Guidance helped him make a very difficult decision regarding a 13-year-old boy. Kyle began telling the story, with sadness still very apparent in his heart. He said this case was one of the most difficult and heartwrenching ones he has ever had to work in his career.

The case involved two 13-year-old friends who were playing a hitting game. Each person takes a turn hitting each other until one gives up. Kyle said this is a game played on many school grounds today. Both boys participated in the game, giving the other permission to hit him as hard as he could.

One of the young boys was very small in stature and was often teased about his size. When his friend gave him permission to hit him, the small boy pulled back with all his might and hit his friend, according to Kyle. The friend fell to the ground and didn't get up.

People at the school rushed over to help and called 911. When the paramedics arrived, they performed CPR on the child. A medical professional worked on him for 45 minutes with his eyes filled with tears. Kyle said it took three men to pull the professional off the boy. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

The sergeant had to tell the parents their son had died. The controversy came when he was faced with half the community wanting him to arrest the friend and charge him with involuntary manslaughter and the other half telling him not to. He had to make the decision but didn't until he "prayed about it."

Both families were grieving. People were looking for justice, but no justice could be served. Kyle interviewed the distraught little boy who he said did not intend to seriously hurt his best friend. The soft-spoken sergeant said he could not see ruining this boy's life and made the decision not to file charges.

"In law enforcement, you have to make some tough decisions," he said. "As humans, we can't always separate our emotions; those are what make us human."

Kyle said with the demanding jobs he and his wife have, sometimes they only see each other in passing. He has a son from a previous relationship, but he and Shannon do not have any children together yet. The crime-fighting couple is planning to start a family of their own soon. Kyle said with all the violence going on today, it is important that parents stay in contact with their children.

"If parents don't communicate with their kids, the streets will," he said.

Outside of his faith, Kyle said it's his wife who keeps him level-headed.

"She is my reality check," he said, laughing.

When he's not working, he enjoys spending what time he can with his wife; going on mission trips with his church, CrossPointe; scuba diving; and kayaking.

Lt. Shannon Salter said sharing the same profession with her spouse definitely has its pros and cons.

"Law enforcement is an extremely stressful profession for so many different reasons," she said. "We definitely understand each other's roles and responsibilities at work and understand the tremendous amount of stress. That part makes it easier when one of us gets called out in the middle of the night and are gone for hours. Also, being on call affects your personal life a great deal."

Salter said they keep an open mind and have never gotten upset with each other because the other was on-call and could not participate in an out-of-town event or had to turn down offers to do things with friends and family. She also said they try not to talk about work when they're off.

"It is difficult to do sometimes, but we remind each other when one of us starts mentioning something about work," she said.

The former Shannon Floyd is from McRae. She moved to Valdosta in 1995 and attended Valdosta State University, where she earned a bachelor of arts in criminal justice and a master of public administration.

Growing up, Shannon, like her husband, had a desire to be a teacher.

"I had a vivid imagination so I had imaginary students whom I would teach," she said.

"My father was in law enforcement and worked for the Georgia State Patrol for over 30 years. I made the decision I wanted to be in law enforcement after working during college at campus police departments at both Georgia College (and State University) and VSU. I began my career at the Valdosta Police Department in 1999."

Salter said one reason she chose law enforcement is because of her father.

"My dad was my biggest inspiration and continues to be even in his retirement," she said. "I watched him put on a uniform each morning and be proud to be a public servant."

Her mother also works for the Georgia State Patrol as a civilian.

"My father inspires me to be in law enforcement; my mother is my role model and inspires me to be a better person," Shannon said.

The lieutenant works at the new Valdosta/Lowndes Crime Lab. Being a lieutenant comes with many responsibilities. She, like her husband, knows it takes a team of dedicated workers to make a system run efficiently.

"Everyone in the lab has multiple responsibilities and dual roles," she said. "We are truly blessed with such talented individuals at the laboratory."

Shannon oversees the Crime Scene Unit.

"I oversee the work being produced by the unit, review reports, and ensure people are properly trained," she said. "I respond to assist them at crime scenes if additional help is needed. I am also a firearm and toolmark examiner, which some people call ballistics. I perform examinations and comparisons on physical evidence submitted to the lab."

As a supervisor, she has various administrative and management responsibilities as well, such as ensuring personnel are managed appropriately and assisting the director in the day-to-day operations of the laboratory.

With the many tasks she faces daily, Shannon still finds enjoyment in her job.

"Serving others is what life is about," she said. "Being in law enforcement, I get to serve the public by providing services that help keep our community safe and a great place to live and work. Working in forensic science gives me the opportunity to seek the truth through science, whatever that truth may be. We are here to provide justice to the victims and to the accused, no matter whom that truth benefits."

Shannon said a very difficult part of her job is seeing people suffer.

"Because we see so much negativity and bad things happening, sadly we become desensitized to it all," she said. "Sometimes I wish I was naive to all of the evil and cruel things people have to endure."

When she is not solving crimes, she enjoys serving God in any capacity, spending time with family and friends and traveling as much as she and her husband possibly can. The couple attends CrossPointe Church, and both agree every blessing, whether it's family, job or health, is all because of God and not because of anything people have done.

Her dreams for the future are to have children and own a coffee house on the beach. Her most difficult cases are those which involve children, and she talked about some of the problems she sees in the children growing up today.

"I feel as though parents try to be their kids' friend instead of their parent," she said. "Believe it or not, kids like structure and consistency."

She said years ago when she was on patrol, she responded to an unruly teen. After sitting down with him, she saw the "street-tough" kid break down and cry because he wanted to feel loved by his parents. He had no structure, no curfew, no sense of emotional connection with his parents. Shannon also said the teen envied his friends who had strict parents because it meant they cared. She noted that deterring kids from crime and violence begins at home, and parents need to set the example of the behavior they expect from their children.

She also said some kids live in situations where they are told by their own family they will never amount to anything, and they ultimately live their lives believing that. She shares this advice with the youth:

"God put all of us on His team and gave you a special job to do. You have special abilities and talents that He gave you in order to help His work be done. By not using those abilities in your life, you are letting the team down. Each of us is special in our own ways."

Her advice ended with one simple quote: "I know I'm somebody 'cause God don't make no junk." Anonymous.

In a profession where men tend to dominate, Shannon said she has never felt as though she had to prove herself or that she was not respected as an officer of the law.

"As long as you do your job, do it to the best of your ability, and (don't) expect to be treated any differently, it's like doing any other job," she said.