Last year instructors at the Nebraska Office of Highway Safety created a recognition program for the Nebraska Drug Recognition Expert (DRE) program. The two awards that were created were the ‘DRE of the Year’ (entitled the Mark VanHorn DRE Instructor of the Year Award) and ‘DRE Prosecutor of the Year’.
The 2022 Mark VanHorn DRE Instructor of the Year Award was presented to Bellevue Police Lieutenant Joe Milos. Joe serves as the Statewide DRE Instructor. He instructed four Standardized Field Sobriety Testing (SFST) Basic Courses, four Advanced Roadside Impaired Driving Enforcement (ARIDE) Courses, two DRE Schools – South Dakota & Nebraska, one SFST/DRE Instructor Training School. He also started a new DRE Reporting system for the state of Nebraska. All of this while he was also involved in 23 DRE evaluations during that period.
Congratulations to Joe on this great accomplishment.
Each year the Bellevue Police Department selects four officers (one for each quarter of the year) to receive the Officer of the Quarter award. Our most recent Officer of the Quarter went to Officer Jordan Spencer. Jordan’s award read:
“In his role as Training Coordinator, Officer Spencer has a wide variety of daily tasks. Not one day is alike and most days consist of him having to prioritize tasks to meet the needs of those he serves. He is extremely organized and is always looking for ways to improve the skill sets of Officers of our Department. Officer Spencer is passionate about his job and spends a great amount of his personal time researching and preparing for what he will be teaching. In his two years with the Training Unit, Officer Spencer has been a reliable and trusted Officer who exceeds expectations in his performance of duties with the goal of bettering his fellow Officers. He is dedicated to the service of our Department members’ well-being and skills.”
Finally, the most recent Sarpy Douglas Law Enforcement Academy (SDLEA) class graduated on November 18th of this year. At each graduation, there are a handful of awards presented for outstanding performance. Three of those awards include:
The ‘Outstanding Academic Award’, which “is presented to (1) one member of the SDLEA Recruit class who has obtained the highest academic average at the conclusion of the respective Recruit course and has both successfully completed all performance objectives of the Recruit training AND has not failed the comprehensive test portions of the training.”
“The Comprehensive Achievement Award is presented to the Recruit with the highest weighted average score in the areas of written exams, comprehensive practical scores, firearms composite score and final Cooper Standard fitness percentage.”
AND
“The Honor Recruit Award is presented to the Recruit that demonstrates an outstanding overall performance in the areas specific to practical law enforcement. This Honor Recruit will be chosen by the SDLEA instructors and fellow Recruits as the Recruit optimizing these qualities of a Law Enforcement Officer.”
On November 18th, all three of these awards were presented to Bellevue Police Officer Nathan Ridley.
