At just 17 years old, Captain Jeffrey Kranz managed to qualify for the Milwaukee Police Department.
Throughout his life he had a desire to stop crime on the streets. He fulfilled that dream by becoming an officer.
“Having been on the department since I was 17, I’ve always had a sort of one-sided view of things, the police side, working with officers as a consumer of their services,” Kranz said. “All of this gave me a really good idea of how to run a successful police force.”
Kranz worked his way up the ranks at MPD and became a part of the tactical team unit, also known as SWAT. He retired from the SWAT force in 2012 and then became a private security guard at a hospital.
“At the hospital, I was the one who had to call to police, so seeing things from this perspective definitely gave me the entire view of what it is like to be a police officer,” Kranz said.
Just a few years ago, the Marquette Police Department was founded, and Kranz had a big impact in making it a reality.
“When Marquette was looking at transitioning to a police department, they offered me an opportunity to help develop the program,” Kranz said. “Now that I am captain at MUPD, my position entails a bunch of different things. I oversee all of the patrol operations and the investigative services. That includes the detectives, and then your cops on the street. I also work on staffing and how we are going to prepare for certain events.”
Kranz noted one of the most important jobs he has is putting together the investigative team after an incident occurs.
“We liaison a lot with the Milwaukee Police Department so if ever we need help from them, they are always quick to aid us in response,” Kranz said.
MUPD detective Billy Ball described his relationship with Kranz as “awesome.”
“Captain Kranz is one of the guys that I have had the pleasure of working with,” Ball said. “He has had a tremendous influence on me as a person.”
As captain, officers at MUPD look up to Kranz for daily advice and leadership.
“Being there for 26 years instilled me with a lot of lessons learned and guys here definitely look to me as a role model,” Kranz said. “At MPD we did a range of things: undercover narcotics investigations, protecting the President, cracking down on gang violence and much more. I was also a field training officer so I like to teach the people on the force now.”
Kranz said his favorite part of the job is getting out and meeting people. “I like to walk around and talk to the many different people that are a part of the Marquette community,” Kranz said. “You don’t only have people from all over the city at Marquette, but you have people from all over the world. So it’s awesome just to meet all these different personalities and interact with them.”
Kranz has dedicated his life to being a police officer, but one of his escapes includes baseball. “I’m a huge baseball fan, not a Cubs fan, sorry everyone,” Kranz joked. “I actually work for the MLB. I am an authenticator here in Milwaukee so it allows me to be a part of the game. I’ve never had the skill set to be a baseball player but I still get to be part of the game by doing that job.”
Kranz was reluctant to point to one person in specific that has made a tremendous impact on him as a person, but said that his family is the most important thing to him.
“I can’t say it’s one person that’s made me the person I am today, but I can say that it’s the people that have surrounded me,” he said. “I have two sons, so you strive to be the person that they look up to and want to be in their future. Both of my sons are officers or in the process of becoming officers. One of my sons is already an officer at the Milwaukee Police Department and my other son is prepping to become one, so it is a great feeling to see them following in dad’s footsteps.”
Kranz is currently enrolled in a class at Marquette and wants to become more educated after he finishes his career.
“I’ve always believed you can never stop learning, so I wanted to take advantage of the education that I was offered here,” he said. “Milwaukee is my home and I am excited to see what the future holds for me.”
