Lay Down the Law Award Winner

Kansas City Police Department, DUI Unit

In 2021, the Kansas City Police Department’s DUI Unit made 1,271 impaired driving arrests, the most for any police agency in the State of Missouri. Officer Doug Davidson of the DUI Unit led Missouri with 301 arrests all by himself. Davidson is one of seven KCPD members assigned to the DUI Unit, led by Sergeant Corey Carlisle. The squad does not function like a normal patrol unit, but instead invests its time and resources into solely finding impaired drivers. It’s a rare group to find in our region. In fact, the top seven officers cited in 2021 DUI arrest data, compiled by the Law Enforcement Traffic Safety Advisory Council (LETSAC), were all members of the KCPD DUI Unit. The DUI unit – six full-time officers and one sergeant – is unusual in local policing. They don’t answer 911 calls. They’re not assigned to a specific patrol division. Rather, they work out of the South Patrol station. From there, they are responsible for traversing the 319 square miles of Kansas City, Missouri. Kansas City Police Department’s DUI unit was founded nearly 50 years ago, in 1972, and remains one of the top specialized units in law enforcement today.