2024 Winner

Colonel Melissa A. Zebley

Superintendent

Delaware State Police

Colonel Melissa Zebley of the Delaware State Police is a champion for traffic safety. Through her years of advocacy, partnership developments, and implementation of evidence-based strategies, she has established a legacy of enhancements in motor vehicle safety. As the leader of the Delaware State Police, she focused on statewide programs for enforcement strategies and partnered with numerous state agencies to enhance traffic safety. As Delaware’s leader in traffic enforcement, Colonel Zebley quickly focused on technology developments to elevate traffic safety. She oversaw the building of new commercial motor vehicle inspection stations with modernized weight measurement systems and implemented Delaware’s first virtual inspection system for enhanced compliance with commercial motor vehicles. Colonel Zebley also advocated for the development of a statewide crash mapping and analysis tool. This tool allows all law enforcement agencies in Delaware to have a single platform for crash data analysis and crash hot spot mapping. 

As Superintendent of the Delaware State Police, Colonel Zebley oversaw Delaware State Police’s evidence-based crash reduction program. This program was founded on analysis of collisions in Delaware to understand casual factors and revealed collision hot spots and impaired and distracted driving as the state’s greatest challenges with collisions. Colonel Zebley empowered regional commanders to form cooperative working relationships with the DOT and Delaware’s Office of Highway Safety for engineering, education, and enforcement programs at the most dangerous crash locations. Her actions resulted in a 33% increase in proactive distracted driving contacts and an 8% increase in proactive DUI enforcement by her troopers. Her focus on driver behaviors, educational partnerships, and roadway enhancements ultimately resulted in a 13% reduction of collision for the agency.