A friend's tragic death motivates Eden Prairie cop to get impaired drivers off the road

A tragic memory rides along with an Eden Prairie police officer every time he gets in his squad and patrols the many miles of roads on the lookout for impaired drivers.

Chad Streiff outdid himself during one recent 10-hour shift in the sprawling southwest Twin Cities suburb, pulling over five people who were suspected of driving while drunk or under the influence of drugs.

Streiff's busy time from 6 p.m. to 4 a.m. on Aug. 15-16 is just his latest shift that ended with multiple DWI arrests. He's nabbed three in single shifts six times previously, earning him what the state Department of Public Safety (DPS) calls its "Hat Trick Award," which includes a customized hockey stick.

"I had a friend that passed away due to drinking and driving," Streiff, who joined the Eden Prairie police force in 2014, said Saturday. "He spent the day at his sister's wedding and later that night decided to drive home despite several people asking him to stay due to having been drinking throughout the day."

Streiff said his friend rolled his vehicle on a gravel road, was thrown from behind the wheel and died the next day.

"I had to watch a 5-year-old boy say goodbye to his father a week later," Streiff recalled. "Ever since, I have been very strong about DWIs and enforce this law to prevent another child from having to say goodbye to their parent."

Streiff's busy night in mid-August was thanks to him first spotting a common driving offense — either speeding, failing to signal or crossing a line along the road. One driver was impaired by marijuana; another was under 21 and had an open bottle of alcohol in the car while driving 76 miles per hour in a 60-mph zone.

Streiff is one of 24 officers across the state whose singular focus on impaired driving is funded by a grant from the DPS. The agency put him on its DWI Enforcer All-Star Team in 2019, when he recorded 79 DWI arrests.

In each case, Streiff has to make the stop, detect and determine the type of impairment, make the arrest and file the necessary paperwork.

"It's extremely rare for an officer to produce that many DUIs in a shift," said Mike Hanson, director of the DPS' Office of Traffic Safety, pointing to Streiff having the knowledge and people skills to pull off five in one night.

"The biggest thing that helps me out is my training as a drug recognition evaluator" in 2016, Streiff said. "When it comes to DWIs, it's not just the alcohol that I'm looking for. Drugs have had a significant impact in today's society and have been on the rise for several years."

In 2018, Streiff went from pupil to instructor in drug recognition along with teaching how to administer the necessary tests to confirm impairment.

Streiff's five-in-one-night shift came at the onset of the DPS' beefed-up DWI enforcement effort, which began Aug. 14 and runs through Sept. 7, Labor Day.

July was an especially tragic month for the state, the DPS said. There were 10 deaths attributed to drunken driving, according to a preliminary total that Hanson fears is likely to rise. That compares with seven in July 2019.

And not to take anything away from Streiff and his fellow DWI Enforcer All-Stars, Hanson said, "We can't enforce our way out of impaired driving. It's up to each driver to make the choice to drive sober and drive smart."

Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482