Photo by Tom Jenz
Lieutenant Scott Freiburger
Lieutenant Scott Freiburger
I wanted to find out about the SWAT team, the Special Weapons and Tactics unit in the Milwaukee Police Department. My image of SWAT had been of tough men in black uniforms, guns raised and crouching in front of a building or house, ready to pounce on the bad guys.
On a cold gray winter morning, I arrived at SWAT team headquarters on 47th and Vliet Street in the inner city. Bleak and brown, the two-story building was surrounded by police vehicles, a somber setting in the hostile mist. I could have been in a movie scene, with a foreboding music background. I pictured a dark armored vehicle exploding out of the garage and taking over the street.
A few minutes later, I was seated across the desk from Lieut. Scott Freiburger, tall, strong, straight to the point and commanding the room. He has a big job. The SWAT Team services high-risk search and arrest warrants, incidents involving barricaded suspects, crowd control, hostage rescues and active shooters.
Lieut. Freiburger, I’m wondering about your path in life, how you got into police work.
I always wanted to be a police officer since I was little. That had always been my dream. I grew up in Brookfield. Went to Brookfield Central High School. My dad worked in computer stuff. That was beyond what I could understand. My mom worked as a receptionist in a doctor’s office. I have an older sister. I went to college at UW-Milwaukee and graduated in criminal justice. Six months after I graduated, I got hired by the city police department and entered the Academy.
Does the Milwaukee Police Department prefer recruits to have a college degree? Is it a requirement?
If you are 21 years old, you can start the job with just a high school degree, but within five years, you need 66 college credits.
Where does the police training take place?
North Side. The Training Academy is on 6680 North Teutonia. Both police and fire department personnel do their training there. Takes about six months to complete training. You learn laws, tactics, report writing. My first assignment was as a general patrol officer with District 1 Downtown. After a year, I got deployed as a Marine. I was in the Marine Reserves. A year later, I was back at District 1 and stayed there for a year. Then, I got transferred to District 3 on 47th and North. I spent eight years there as a police officer.
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District 3 is a tough area, covers the inner city where there is often law breaking and criminal activity.
That’s true. I spent about five and a half years on the anti-gang unit. Worked with some really good guys, and we did great stuff. You work on drug cases, violent crimes, shootings. Make arrests, and you follow up investigations. You do search warrants. You try to link gang members together, and you build cases.
How did you get involved with the SWAT team, the Tactical Enforcement Unit?
I got promoted to Sergeant. Then, I applied for the SWAT team post, did interviews and some testing.
What are the requirements to become a SWAT team member?
You need to have put in four years of service as a patrol officer. You have to pass a background check first. Then, there is a physical agility test. And there is a shooting test where you demonstrate your ability with a sidearm and a shotgun. Then, you are interviewed with some members of the SWAT team, supervisors and commander. In the final or fifth phase, you start doing the stuff that a tactical officer would do. Takes a week. This helps determine how you handle stress. Finally, there is SWAT 101, two weeks of designated SWAT training and working on tactics. Keep in mind that every month we also have ongoing training for existing SWAT team members.
Is being a SWAT team member a part time assignment while you do other duties as a patrol officer? Are you on call?
No, in the city of Milwaukee, being a SWAT team member is a full-time job and you report to this building on Vliet Street. We have approximately 30 SWAT personnel, and about 140 people work out of our building from various units. If you are not doing tactical operations, you are patrolling the city in two-man units.
When did you become the Lieutenant in the Specialized Patrol Division?
There is a captain who is in charge of the whole operation and then myself running the day shift, while another lieutenant handles the night shift. My responsibilities are a SWAT team, the bomb squad, the K-9 dogs and the horses. I was promoted into this job in October of 2020.
As the lieutenant in charge, do you recruit SWAT team members—and what are the character traits and experience needed? After all, it’s a high-risk assignment.
If you choose to be a candidate, we send out a survey to your supervisor who shares with us reports on your teamwork, report writing, work history and traits that would make a good SWAT operator. We do an interview where we pose hypothetical situations, put the candidate through a week of situational training.
I would imagine you need to think and move quickly in dangerous situations.
The more you start working with the guys, the more it falls into place, each member depending on one another. Teamwork is huge. You have to trust and work with each other.
What equipment does a team need including weapons and vehicles? What uniform do you wear in dangerous tactical situations?
We all carry a sidearm. We also have rifles and sniper capabilities, long range rifles. We wear normal police uniforms but with special armor for personal protection, and, of course, the black helmet. We have two armored vehicles called Bearcat Rescue Vehicles. It looks like a bank truck that delivers money. We also have a command vehicle with extra equipment if needed.
The Bearcat can be used for off-road and rural missions. It seats 10-12 fully equipped officers. The open floor plan allows for rescue of downed personnel. There is a rescue hatch on top.
Tell me if this is correct: To reduce the time to get a SWAT team on the scene, it is the practice to place SWAT equipment and weaponry in lockers in the trunks of specialized police cruisers.
We don’t keep our equipment in regular squad cars. But when there is a call up after hours, the officers grab their gear bags with specialized weapons and body armor, and head to the scene. Then, somebody drives the Bearcat Rescue Vehicle from this building to the scene.
On a daily basis, what are your SWAT team members engaged in doing?
They are assigned to police districts and partnered up in two-man squads. They do not have to stay in those districts if they get a call. For instance, if they are working the South Side and get a call about trouble on the North Side, they might change locations. It’s up to them to go where needed—for example, an armed robbery in progress or a break-in or a shooting. That two-man squad will assess the situation and call in if more of us are needed. We put a lot of trust in our people to make decisions.
When a SWAT team is needed, does a judge have to sign a warrant for you to take action?
Generally, yes. We will need a search warrant signed by a judge. There are circumstances that exigent circumstances that would not require a warrant.
Let’s say you have dangerous event. A suspect has locked himself in a house, and he has a gun and will not come out. He might even have killed someone or is a wanted felon. What is the process you go through to alleviate this perilous situation?
One of the regular police districts would call it in and explain the situation. We ask questions like “Is there anyone else in the house,” and so on. We then make the decision of how many officers we will call to the scene. Once we are on the scene, our officers will contain the scene so there is no chance of the guy escaping. First, we try communicating with the suspect, get him to surrender on his own.
Is it kind of like in the movies where you might use a professional negotiator?
Yes, we have negotiators, and may bring them onto a scene. The negotiator will talk to the suspect by phone or over a loudspeaker. Or we might have gained access to the first floor, while the suspect is on the second floor. He can hear the negotiator through the stairwell.
I think the public sometimes has the wrong impression of how a SWAT team works, in other words, a squad of cops busting into a house or building.
We never try to do that. Our goal is always to resolve the situation as peacefully as possible. We brainstorm every possible option to avoid anybody getting hurt.
I do a lot of stories on the inner city, and I’m connected with community organizers. I get the sense that many Black residents have an impression of police being bullies in these types of situations. But I don’t see that happening. What you can you do to communicate with some of these residents in order to develop trust?
We have community liaison officers who work with the public.
Our SWAT teams attend events, bring our vehicles, show them how we work, talk to kids. We’ve done girl scout troops events, different camps, businesses. We try to educate people on what we do.
Can you describe a couple SWAT incidents your team has been involved in?
In 2021, we were SWAT Team of the Year for the state of Wisconsin. That was partly based on a hostage rescue in March of 2021 on the Northwest Side. A suspect had fired shots and held a female hostage against her will in the bathroom. We could not see him, and we tried to negotiate to distract him. Hours went by. Eventually, we moved in and breached the bathroom door. The suspect shot at the officers through the door, but he missed everyone. We broke down the door, one of the officers grabbed the girl and pulled her out. A couple others grabbed the guy and pinned him to the bathtub and brought him into custody. In another incident, a couple months ago, a suspect had a child with him. We were able to negotiate the release of the child, and then eventually the suspect surrendered. Our method is always to brainstorm methods we can use to safely resolve these types of incidents.
Your teams often execute search warrants. How many search warrants are issued every year?
Last year, we did 354 search warrants. I’m just guessing, but the other officers with the police department did maybe 100 more themselves.
How does the warrant process work?
The police investigator or detective drafts the warrant. The supervisor reviews it, and then the prosecutor reviews it, and then the investigator takes it to the judge for approval. Once that is completed, the tactical unit takes over to execute the warrant.
Historically, how long has the Milwaukee SWAT units been in existence?
Since 1967. We were one of the first SWAT teams established in the United States.
