LOMA, Colorado — Madison Evridge never planned to follow exactly in her father’s footsteps. But one ride-along three years ago changed everything. Now the 28-year-old Western Slope port of entry officer has been named the Colorado State Patrol’s 2025 Port of Entry Officer of the Year, an award that will be officially presented in April.

The quiet, steady work of inspecting commercial trucks just got a very public spotlight.

A Defining Moment on a Flatbed

Evridge still remembers the first Level 1 inspection she watched her dad perform.

The flatbed trailer had deep cracks running through the frame and welds that looked like they were held together by hope and duct tape.

“That thing could have snapped in half under a load and taken out half a highway,” Evridge said. “Right then I knew this job actually saves lives. Not in theory. In real time.”

Three years later, she’s the one finding those hidden dangers at the Loma Port of Entry on Colorado’s Western Slope.

Her supervisors say her inspection numbers are impressive, but what really set her apart was something harder to measure: the way she mentors brand-new officers and the respect she commands from the trucking community.

The Truckers Call Her “Miss Madison”

Spend five minutes at the Loma port and you’ll hear it.

Drivers from Texas, California, even Quebec roll down their windows and greet her by name.

“Miss Madison caught a brake chamber ready to blow on my rig last month,” one driver told me while waiting for clearance. “She saved my life and probably whoever was behind me on I-70.”

Evridge laughs when she hears stories like that.

“I just love their stories,” she said. “These guys have seen every corner of America. Some have driven through hurricanes, blizzards, you name it. They’re out here keeping the country running, and I’m just trying to keep them safe while they do it.”

Training Tomorrow’s Lifesavers

When she’s not at the port, Evridge travels the state as an academy instructor and field training officer.

She can spend weeks with a single cadet, walking them through everything from proper air brake checks to how to stay calm when a driver gets angry.

“The best moment is when you see it click,” she said. “Their eyes light up and you know you’ve just helped create someone who’s going to save lives for the next twenty years.”

Colorado State Patrol Captain Mike Koder called Evridge “the complete package.”

“She has the technical skills, the teaching ability, and most importantly, the heart for this work,” Koder said. “She’s exactly what we want every port officer to be.”

Representing Women in a Man’s World

Evridge is quick to acknowledge the extra hurdles she’s faced as a woman in law enforcement.

“I’ve had drivers who wouldn’t even look at me at first,” she said. “Or others who tried to explain basic truck parts to me like I’d never seen one before.”

Her response? Show up early, work late, and out-inspect everyone.

“I decided pretty quick that I was going to represent women in this field well,” she said. “Not by being loud about it. By being so good at my job that nobody could question whether a woman belongs here.”

Three years in, the questioning has stopped.

The Quiet Revolution at Colorado’s Ports

Port of Entry officers don’t make traffic stops or chase speeding cars. Their work is quieter but no less critical.

In 2024 alone, Colorado’s port officers placed more than 18,000 commercial vehicles out of service for serious safety violations. That’s 18,000 potential disasters prevented.

Evridge’s port in Loma sits on one of the busiest trucking corridors in the state, where I-70 climbs into the Rocky Mountains. Every unsafe truck she catches here is one that won’t be barreling down the steep grades toward Denver.

What’s Next for Officer Evridge

She’s already eyeing the next step: formal mentorship programs within State Patrol and eventually leadership roles.

“I want to help build the kind of culture where every new officer, especially women and minorities, feels like they belong from day one,” she said.

When April comes and she stands up to accept her Officer of the Year award, it’ll mark almost exactly three years since she started this journey.

From that first ride-along with her dad to training the next generation of port officers, Madison Evridge has turned a family tradition into her own legacy.

And somewhere out on I-70 tonight, there’s a truck driver making it home safe to his family because a young woman in Loma, Colorado decided she wanted to save lives one inspection at a time.

That’s what Officer of the Year really means.