State’s top DWI enforcer earns Eagle Award

Mitch Elzen, a Minnesota State Patrol trooper, and a Steele County native, became the first trooper in outstate Minnesota to win the Eagle Award.
The award is given every year to the trooper across the state that makes the most DWI arrests during the course of the year. Elzen arrested 135 drunk drivers last year in southeastern Minnesota. He primarily works in Olmsted and Dodge counties.
For Elzen, who grew up by Medford, catching drunk drivers is more than just a job.
The impact of drunk driving is something he knows all too well.
In 1982, Elzen’s father, Ron, was looking at the damage from a small fender bender for less than a minute, when he was struck on his left side by a drunk driver.
After being tossed 180 feet down the road, Ron suffered internal bleeding in his stomach, a broken hip, broken back, and a crushed right ankle.
Since then, he has had many different surgeries.
Ron explained when he found out it was a drunk driver, he was upset.
“I was upset that he was on the road,” Ron said, in a video produced for the Minnesota Department of Public Safety.
Through his time as a trooper, Elzen explained that he works hard every shift to catch drunk drivers and to get them off the road.
“Hard work pays off. Every single shift I am trying to find a drunk driver,” Elzen said.
Because of his hard work, Elzen isn’t just arresting more people he is also able to help save innocent lives.
“More innocent people haven't become a victim to the life long consequences that come from a crash that involved an impaired driver,” Elzen explained.
For Elzen, being the first trooper to win the award in Greater Minnesota is important because it shows that drinking and driving is a issue everywhere.
“It just shows that there are many impaired driver's in smaller communities. Impaired driving is a real problem everywhere,” Elzen explained.
Elzen explained that people who decide to drink should plan ahead and arrange for a sober ride so they don’t risk hurting themselves or others.
“People need to plan ahead when going out or make the safer choice of getting a ride home late at night,” Elzen said. ”Don't take the risk to drive home impaired because it only takes one time to hurt someone or yourself. We are always out looking to remove impaired drivers off the road,” he added.
Elzen’s dad is very proud of the fact that his son became a trooper so people don’t have to suffer like his family and him have.
“I’m proud of him,” Ron said in the video. “He’s getting these drunks off the road so no one has to go through what I and my wife have gone through,” he added.