Police officers recognized for getting drunks off road
15 Kelowna Mounties among officers in region honoured as members of Alexa’s Team
Laurel Middelaer’s four-year-old daughter Alexa was killed by a drunk driver nine years ago. Since then, police officers across the province have been working to remove impaired drivers from the roads under the banner of Alexa’s Team.
“It’s pretty humbling to know that our daughter is a source of inspiration for officers to go above and beyond and apprehend impaired drivers and make a difference,” said Middelaer at a recognition ceremony Wednesday in Kelowna. “She would have loved them.”
On Wednesday morning, 61 officers from the southeast district, 15 of whom work in Kelowna, were honoured as members of Alexa’s Team.
Two of the Kelowna officers were recognized as all-stars for taking more than 25 impaired drivers off the roads.
Formed in 2008, Alexa’s Team has grown from 26 members to more than 2,000 police officers across B.C.
“My understanding is that they don’t get a lot of recognition and what they do is not for the faint of heart,” said Middelaer. “We feel pretty insignificant as people, so when we see that our daughter, her memory, is inspiring these really tough, passionate, courageous men and women, it’s really humbling.”
Const. Troy Bevan was one of the Kelowna officers recognized as an allstar on Alexa’s Team for getting more than 60 impaired drivers off the roads last year.
“It means at the end of the day we’ve taken drunks off the road that would possibly have killed somebody,” said Bevan. “Knowing that I’m keeping somebody else’s kid safe, it means a lot.”
Impaired driving does not seem to becoming any less of a problem, he said.
“It’s a never-ending cycle. There’s not enough police to really cause enough people to fear the consequences.”
Having come to Kelowna four years ago after working in North Vancouver for several years, Bevan said impaired driving is significantly more prevalent in the Okanagan.
“On any given day, they’re out there; there’s impaired drivers out right now,” he said. “We have to be in the right place at the right time to find them.”