The Bellevue Police Department held their annual banquet last weekend and Police Chief Ken Clary announced the Uniformed Officer of the Year and Detective of the Year which was chosen by the Police Department's Excellence in Law Enforcement Committee. Mayor Rusty Hike and the City of Bellevue would like to congratulate Officer Kirk Meyer and Detective Michael Holm on their respective awards and thank all of the men and women of the Bellevue Police Department for their courageous service to the Bellevue Community.
Officer Kirk Meyer
Officer Meyer was recognized twice this year as an Honorable Mention for Officer of the Quarter for the 1ST and 3rd QUARTER.
On 3/25/21, Officer Meyer was off duty and driving in his personal vehicle near the location of 180th and Dodge Street. Officer Meyer noticed all the vehicle traffic was coming to a stop, then noticed a single OPD cruiser driving down the shoulder. As Officer Meyer got closer to the OPD cruiser on the side of the road, he noticed that there was a male party on foot in the middle of the roadway who was covered in blood and acting erratic. Officer Meyer pulled in front of the OPD cruiser and went to assist the OPD Officer who was by himself and giving the suspect verbal commands. Officer Meyer assisted the OPD Officer in placing the suspect in handcuffs. Officer Meyer was commended for recognizing an unsafe situation to the general public as well as assisting the lone OPD Officer, who would have had to go hands on with a suspect by himself.
On 12/04/2021, at approximately 0339 hours, officers were dispatched to 1708 Yorktown Street for a home invasion that led to a shooting inside the home. There were two witnesses and the shooting victim was still inside the home. Officer Meyer was the second officer on scene and immediately began providing direction and taking control. He had the initial officer that arrived secure the shooter and he began to communicate through the front door to the two witnesses in the home to get them out, prior to making entry. Despite the urgency to find the victim, Officer Meyer was tactically cautious in his response. Upon finding the shooting victim, he assisted in evaluating the victim’s injuries. Officer Meyer relayed the location of the firearm to responding units and directed what areas of the house still need to be cleared. Officer Meyer did not hesitate to take action and he was the biggest reason the initial response to this call was successful.
Officer Meyer also received a lifesaving award for saving the life of a female party while he was off-duty and was an integral part of the FTO program during an unprecedented time of growth for the department.
Officer Meyer’s leadership and tactical experience are looked upon daily from his recruits, teammates, and supervisors.
Detective Michael Holm
Detective Holm had a very successful year and was the lead detective on several high-profile investigations that spanned several months.
On August 26th, 2020, Detective Holm began an investigation into a female suspect who was using a South Carolina Driver’s License and a victim’s identity to withdraw $8,700.00 from the Wells Fargo Bank located near 36th and Comstock Avenue. He was subsequently informed by the bank that the Omaha Police Department had arrested a similar female and was able to identify the female that the Omaha Police Department arrested as the suspect in the Bellevue incident. She admitted to the Omaha Police Department that she was part of a national crime ring that provides them with an ID and a credit card to fraudulently obtain money from banks. Detective Holm was also notified that during the same time of these incidents, a male suspect, who was believed to be the female’s accomplice, was arrested at Eppley Airfield trying to board a plane in possession of 15 fraudulent credit cards with matching IDs. Detective Holm was able to coordinate with both the Omaha Police Department and the Lincoln Police Department to determine that the two suspects were responsible for a total of $97,075.00 in fraudulent transactions in the two cities.
Detective Holm coordinated with the United States Attorney’s Office, the Omaha Police Department, and Homeland Security Investigations to get federal indictments for the people involved. He also wrote search warrants for their cellular phones and in January of 2021, the information collected was used to link the suspects to a Nigerian male who was training people how to run fraud crews throughout the United States. It was determined that the ring had access to $40-$50 million dollars in account information as well as access to Personally Identifiable information of account holders.
In August of 2021, Detective Holm and Captain Melvin were notified that federal prosecutors were pursuing Federal indictments in multiple states based on the original investigation. Detective Holm was commented by the United States Attorney’s Office and HSI for his detailed investigation and collection of information over the course of several months.
In February of 2022, the Nigerian male was federally indicted in Nebraska. A total of 751 victims were identified and the total loss was calculated to be $5.2 million in attempted fraud and $1.6 million in completed fraud.
From August through September of 2021, Detective Holm worked several burglaries and stolen vehicle cases associated with the same group, several of whom live in Bellevue. He worked with detectives from Omaha, who had cases with the same group, and was able to link members to several burglaries, auto thefts, and thefts from vehicles in Bellevue. At the time of these incidents, one of the Bellevue residents was on an ankle monitor but was believed to still be out committing crimes. Detective Holm noticed a pattern of ankle monitor malfunctions around this same time as these crimes and set up an operation with probation and road patrol to capture the suspect. The suspect was subsequently captured, and it was learned that the technique the probationer was using to defeat the monitor was not known by probation or police and exposed defects in the monitoring system. Members of the group were subsequently charged for their crimes throughout the Omaha/Metro area.