Mayor Jeff Porter recognized Detective Ryan Khawly as Officer of the Month at the Special Presentations on October 17th for his exceptional public service and work on the Homestead Police Department during the month of August 2018.
Captain Raymond DeJohn assisted with the presentation, accompanied by Lieutenant Brice Barker, who nominated him for the honor, along with Chief Alexander Rolle, Colonel Scott Kennedy, Captain Angela Washington, and Captain Garland Wright.
Khawly began his career with the Homestead Police Department as a reserve officer in January 2013. He became a full-time officer in June of 2015. After two years, Detective Khawly was reassigned to the General Investigations Unit (GIU) as a detective, in March of 2017.
DeJohn explained, “Detective Khawly primarily investigates fraud in the GIU.” Citing several cases that illustrated Khawly’s outstanding work as a detective, he said, “He performed with excellence during the month of August.”
Khawly was assigned to investigate a case where $76,000 of honey was missing from Bee Natural Honey, a local honey producer. During his investigation, Khawly discovered that two employees from Bee Natural Honey were falsifying company invoices to make it appear that they were receiving 50-gallon barrels of honey, when, in fact, most of the barrels were filled with water. The two employees were being paid thousands of dollars as a kickback from the company delivering the barrels of honey. Both employees, a husband and wife, were arrested. The story was covered in August 22, 2018 issue of the Miami New Times, which referred to it as “Miami’s biggest honey caper.”
During the same time period, Khawly also investigated and solved other notable cases, including one where a group of individuals had been defrauding John Deere authorized dealerships in the South Florida area, including Richards Tractor, in Homestead. He investigated a case where a subject was defrauding the City of Homestead by using stolen credit cards to pay for several different utility bills, and another where a subject was cashing stolen checks at a check-cashing store on Mowry Drive, across from the Homestead Police Department.
DeJohn said, “It was these actions that happened during the month of August, as well as the things that Detective Khawly does on a daily basis in his work, that led to his being nominated as Officer of the Month.”
Lieutenant Barker, who nominated Khawly for the award said upon recommending him to Chief Rolle for the job, remembered telling him “I have total confidence that this guy is going take our fraud investigations where they’re never been.” He added, “I’m glad to see he’s done so well.”
Mayor Porter presented Khawly with his award and thanked him for “service above and beyond the call of duty.”
Khawly thanked Mayor Porter, the City Council, Chief Rolle and the Command Staff, as well as Lieutenant Barker and Sergeant Garcia.
He said, “All the cases presented today wouldn’t have been possible if it weren’t for the assistance of the GIU to help with the investigation and in the takedown of the criminals.” He added, I have to thank my wife and family for putting up with me and the hours and long days to investigate these cases.”