The Kitsap County Chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) honored several local officers who are actively working to get drunk drivers off our streets.

The 11 officers honored at Tuesday night’s ceremony arrested 352 impaired drivers throughout Kitsap County in 2007. Hundreds of lives were potentially saved by this small group of officers.

Of those honored was Bremerton Police Officer Donnell Rogers who was recognized for his 73 DUI arrests last year. Eight of those arrests were drunk drivers younger than 21 years old. We thank you and all of your fellow police officers for your dedication in making a difference in Bremerton. One less impaired person behind the wheel means one more possible victim will make it home to their family.

Bremerton Police Officer John Rivera also was recognized at Tuesday’s Law Enforcement Awards and Community Recognition ceremony. He recently arrested a driver in Bremerton for DUI which turned out to be the man’s fifth DUI arrest. In what is already five too many, we are grateful Officer Rivera was there to catch this driver before he killed someone.

We are confident Bremerton’s finest are doing their best to keep drivers like this man off our roads.

Betty Skinner of MADD Kitsap County asked Rivera how he caught this driver, who bailed out of jail after each prior arrest. His response to Skinner was he was simply doing his job.

“I want to tell you thank you from the bottom of our hearts because your attention to detail and attitude of ‘I was just doing my job’ got this guy off our roads,” she said to Rivera.

And to every officer who has ever made a DUI arrest, we thank you for keeping us safe.