News
Woman gets top trooper honors
First female awardee has nabbed 200-plus drunken drivers in '07
By Erin Alberty
The Salt Lake Tribune
State Trooper Lisa Steed may have won statewide honors for making more than 200 DUI arrests this year, but she hopes to have less success in 2008. "When you look at how it tells you how many drunk drivers there actually are out there, it's a little scary," Steed said. Steed this month became the first woman to be named "Trooper of the Year" by the state Department of Public Safety. The West Point resident has made some 750 arrests for driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol since she became a trooper five years ago, she said. Her supervisor, Sgt. Shane Nordfelt, said Steed is particularly sensitive to clues that a driver is under the influence of prescription and street drugs. "One of the things she's very good at is recognizing impaired drivers when it's not necessarily alcohol," he said. Steed estimated about 40 percent of her DUI arrests are drug-related.