DUI Task Force award winner: Education necessary to fight impaired driving

Tuesday, six officers were nominated for the Ken Jordan award for excellence in DUI enforcement.

Ken Jordan was killed in the line of duty 13 years ago when helping with a traffic stop. His former partner, Sgt. Glenn Thomas, gets emotional remembering his friend.

“This award is dedicated to a true hero, a good officer, a brother, and a friend,” said Thomas.

The nominees included three officers from both CSPD and the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office. This year’s winner was Dep. Edwin Wilson.

“To be the recipient of it for this year again, it’s truly an honor, I’m speechless,” said Wilson.

Speaking with Wilson, we asked what’s the biggest issue that he is seeing today with impaired drivers.

“I’d say marijuana is getting worse,” he said. “Just with the legalization of marijuana, people should educate themselves on how it affects you. Yes, we can smoke it, yes it is legal you know over a certain age. However, it’s still not legal to go out and drive.”

And with the legalization of marijuana, Wilson says it’s becoming an even bigger issue than drinking. “A lot of people think they can do it and just act fine because it calms them down. Again, better education to the public would be a great help,” Wilson said.

CSP Corporal and Chair of the Pikes Peak Region Drug Task Force added that the large number of people who continuously move to Colorado doesn’t help with the prevention of impaired drivers, but they are going to do everything they can to stop it.

“We are trying to get one step ahead of that by training our officers to get better prepared to go out there and step in front of that danger so we can stop that driver, stop that impairment behind the wheel,” said Hazlett.

In 2018, 75 fatal crashes claimed 81 lives — 25 of those accidents were caused by driving under the influence, which in turn led to 26 deaths.