Seventy-four RCMP and municipal police offers from across the southern Interior were named to the 2014 Alexa’s Team at a ceremony at Quigley Elementary School in Kelowna Wednesday.
The officers were recognized for their work in taking drunk drivers off B.C. roads last year.
The team is named after four-year-old Alexa Middelaer, who was killed in the Lower Mainland in 2008 by a vehicle driven by a drunk driver as she and her aunt petted a horse at the side of the road.
As a result of Alexa’s death, the B.C. government introduced tough new laws to stop impaired driving in 2010.
In a taped video message, Alexa’s parents congratulated the police officers recognized in Kelowna on Wednesday.
According to Mothers Against Drunk Driving Canada, the number of incidents of impaired driving in B.C.has dropped 52 per cent since the tougher laws were introduced, including the ability of law enforcement officers to seize the vehicles of drivers who fail road-side breathalyzer tests.
