Impaired Driving Enforcement: Six RCMP Officers Honoured in NL

Six RCMP Newfoundland and Labrador officers have been recognized by MADD Canada and added to the Nick Coates Impaired Driving Team for their work in taking impaired drivers off provincial roadways between April 1, 2025, and March 31, 2026. The recognition was delivered at a ceremony held in partnership with the Coates family, honouring the memory of Nicholas Coates, who was killed by an alcohol-impaired driver in 2013.

The officers, serving communities including Holyrood, Grand Falls-Windsor, Glovertown, Clarenville and Traffic Services West, met or exceeded a strict threshold of impaired driving arrests within a one-year period. The program underscores that each impaired driving intervention is a potential life saved and reinforces the ongoing priority of combating alcohol- and drug-impaired driving across Newfoundland and Labrador.

Official Details of the Recognition

The Nick Coates Impaired Driving Team is a recognition initiative that highlights RCMP and Royal Newfoundland Constabulary (RNC) officers across Newfoundland and Labrador who make impaired driving enforcement a sustained focus of their policing duties.

Key criteria and award structure as reported by the RCMP include:

• Eligibility period: April 1, 2025, to March 31, 2026.
• To qualify for the Nick Coates Team, an officer must have removed at least 8 impaired drivers from provincial roads during the eligibility period.
• Awards are divided into two levels:
  • Gold Award: 12 or more impaired drivers removed.
  • Silver Award: Minimum of 8 impaired drivers removed.

Gold Award Recipients (RCMP)

The following officers received Gold awards from MADD Canada for 2025–2026:

• Constable Shawn Hannaford – Holyrood
• Constable Stephen Miller – Grand Falls-Windsor
• Constable Kyle Patten – Glovertown
• Constable Caleb Pellerin – Traffic Services West
• Constable Janet Reddy – Holyrood

Silver Award Recipient (RCMP)

The following officer received a Silver award from MADD Canada for 2025–2026:

• Constable Darcy Kettlewell – Clarenville

Constables Stephen Miller, Janet Reddy and Caleb Pellerin are repeat members of the Nick Coates Team, having been recognized in previous years for their impaired driving enforcement.

Top Performer Recognition

For the fourth consecutive year, Constable Caleb Pellerin of Traffic Services West received the title of RCMP Top Performer for impaired driving enforcement within Newfoundland and Labrador. This distinction highlights a continuing focus on road safety enforcement in high-traffic corridors that fall under Traffic Services jurisdictions, similar in concept to how regions are delineated in broader police areas and jurisdictions across Canada.

RCMP leadership emphasized that impaired driving remains a serious and preventable cause of harm on provincial roads, stressing that choosing to drive while impaired by alcohol or drugs is both unnecessary and unacceptable and poses significant risk to innocent road users.

CrimeCanada.ca Safety Perspective

From the perspective of CrimeCanada.ca, this recognition event is more than a ceremony—it is a reminder that active, consistent enforcement is a key factor in reducing serious and fatal collisions linked to alcohol and drug impairment. Communities in Newfoundland and Labrador depend on officers like these to intervene before impaired driving turns into tragedy.

Effective impaired driving enforcement—supported by data-driven deployment of officers across defined policing regions, much like those outlined in our national police area and jurisdiction profiles—plays a direct role in saving lives. Residents can contribute to safer roads by planning sober transportation, using taxis or ride-share services, and immediately calling 911 or their local police if they suspect someone is driving while impaired. Each report gives police an opportunity to stop a high-risk driver before a collision occurs.

CrimeCanada.ca will continue to track and analyze impaired driving trends and related enforcement outcomes across Canada, providing communities with timely safety information and comparative statistics to support evidence-based road safety initiatives.

Official Source & Community Safety

This safety alert is based on an official release from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). CrimeCanada.ca aggregates and analyzes this data to keep the newfoundland-and-labrador community informed, aware, and safe. We are an independent safety data aggregator and not the original creators of the underlying incident report.

Read the full official release here: RCMP Official Statement.