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History of BPD's K9 Unit

In 1995 the Bellevue Police Department began its K9 program with Officer Bartley and Police Service Dog (PSD) Nero, with funding from drug seizures. Officer Bartley had K9 experience in the military. He also then attended a 4-week certification course at Detector Dogs International in Crete, Nebraska. He and Nero were certified as a Dual Purpose Team in March of 1995.

Bartley and Nero started their patrol duties in a green 1995 Chevy Blazer that was a drug seizure vehicle. The team eventually moved up to a Chevy Caprice Patrol car that was outfitted for K9 use.

In 1997 Nero sired a group of puppies. One of those puppies was taken as a stud fee by the department. Falco, the puppy, was raised by various department members until he was mature enough to start his PSD training.

Shortly thereafter, Officer Milos was selected as K9 handler. He was certified as a dual purpose team with PSD Falco in November of 1999 by Detector Dogs International. At this time the K9 Unit was supervised by Sergeant Mike Laufenberg and the K9 Commander was Lieutenant Kurt Strachota.

Officer Milos & Falco started out their patrol work in a maroon 1989 Chevy extended cab pick-up with a topper that had a top speed of 80 MPH. About a year-and-a-half later, the team received a K9 equipped Crown Victoria.

In 2001, PSD Nero died unexpectedly. Officer Bartley was assigned a new PSD by the name of Blitz. PSD Blitz served with Officer Bartley until March of 2006. PSD Blitz had to be retired for medical reasons.

In 2002 the police department decided to have a dual purpose PSD assigned to each of the four patrol shifts. Two new handlers were selected, Officers Heller and Brensel. Officer Heller was teamed up with PSD Zeke and they were certified as a dual purpose K9 Team April of 2003.

Officer Brensel was assigned PSD Rex. Brensel left the department in the Spring of 2006 and Rex was assigned to Officer Bartley shortly after the retirement of Blitz.

Upon his promotion to Sergeant in December of 2005, Officer Milos became the K9 Unit supervisor. He handled PSD Falco until his retirement in April of 2007. Falco enjoys his retirement at the Milos household.

With the re-assignment of PSD Rex to Officer Bartley, this left one shift without a K9 Team. In April of 2006 Officer Franks was selected as a handler and a new PSD was selected. The newly selected PSD was named Spike. Officer Franks and PSD Spike were certified as a Dual Purpose K9 Team in March of 2007 by the Nebraska Law Enforcement Training Center.

In August of 2008,Officer Bartley was named the "K9 Coordinator", taking over the day-to-day management of the K9 Unit. Also in August, Officer Gray was chosen as a K9 handler. He was teamed up with PSD Rico in October. The two became certified by the state of Nebraska in January of 2009.

2010 brought the retirement of Rex in February. Officer Bartley then began working with PSD Harko in March. The two became certified by the state of Nebraska in May of 2010.