Officers on Alexa’s Team honoured for 10 years of working to remove impaired drivers from the road

Ten years after four-year-old Alexa Middelaer was killed by a drunk driver, the special police team named in her honour is marking its own anniversary.

Members of Alexa’s Team were recognized for their efforts in a ceremony in New Westminster on Tuesday.

Alexa’s Team, which aims to remove suspected impaired drivers from the roads, launched in 2008 with 26 members.

“When we first met these men and women and sensed their commitment and drive, it was a transformational experience,” Alex’s mother Laurel Middelaer said.

“In the midst of that grey drudgery of early grief, that day I felt the warm rays of hope and possibility.”
Since then, the team has grown to 2,400 members across B.C.

Const. John Davidson, an Abbotsford police officer who was killed in the line of duty last year, was a member of Alexa’s Team.

Davidson made the all-star Alexa Team after he took more than 25 people off the road each year.

Since 2008, members of Alexa’s Team have removed more than 86,500 suspected impaired drivers from B.C. roads.

“This accomplishment is nothing short of incredible,” Middelaer said at Tuesday’s ceremony. “It is because of you, the men and women here, on Alexa’s Team. But the people in this room today represent much more than statistics and numbers. To me… you’ve actually become friends and have had an impact on our life and our healing more than you will ever know.”

— With files from Amy Judd and Jordan Armstrong