Former Mayor Beutler responds to Chief Bliemeister stepping down

The former City of Lincoln Mayor Chris Beutler, who appointed Bliemeister in 2016, tells Channel 8 News he was shocked to learn the news.
Marlo Lundak,
beutler

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – Chris Beutler, the former mayor who served the City of Lincoln for 12 years, tells Channel 8 News he was shocked to hear the news of Lincoln Police Chief Jeff Bliemeister stepping down to accept a job in the private sector.

Beutler, who appointed Bliemeister in 2016, says he believes the Chief has worked hard to serve the residents of Lincoln for the last four years.

“My initial reaction, as I told the chief this morning, that this was the worst news I’ve received about city government since I left city government,” Beutler says.

“Jeff is a great young police chief, very sensitive to all elements of the community, very sensitive to community policing and generally, you really couldn’t hope for more from a police chief, he did a great job for us.”

Bliemeister, who previously worked for the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office for 20 years, was chosen to run the Lincoln Police Department out of a pool of six candidates.

“He understood that his police officers needed to relate to the communities they policed, and he helped them do that,” Beutler says about Bliemeister.

Bliemeister oversaw thousands of criminal investigations during his time, including around 30 homicides in the city. The chief was part of a series of high-profile cases throughout the years, from the disappearance of Sydney Loofe in 2017 to a deadly shooting at a Chic-Fil-A drive-thru in 2019.
All of the crimes leading up to the overwhelming year of 2020 where his department faced protests calling for reform and racial equality within police departments, to the loss of one of his team members, Investigator Mario Herrera.
Beutler says he is proud of the way the chief handled everything that came in his direction.
“I think he did a lot of things that were very positive to bring conflicting communities back talking to each other again, relatively speaking, Lincoln has come through all the trauma in a pretty good place, and I think much of that has to do with him.”
Although he wishes Bliemeister success in the next phase of his career, Beutler hopes the chief will someday return to public service.
“I told him I think he could be a great police chief in an even larger city.”
Bliemeister’s last day as chief of police will be January 8. Assistant chief Bryan Jackson will assume his role until a permanent replacement is found.
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