Michael Tanem

Michael Tanem retired from the Milwaukee Police Department (MPD) in June 2024 as a Sergeant on the Homicide Unit. He served the city of Milwaukee for 25 years, and throughout his time at MPD served in several capacities: General Patrol, Field Training Officer, Anti-Gang Officer and Fugitive Apprehension Unit. He was promoted to Detective in 2014 and served on the following units: Robbery, Federal Task Force Officer with the ATF and Homicide. During his time as a Detective, he was a member of the Crisis and Hostage Negotiation Unit.  

Michael joined the Crisis and Hostage Negotiations Unit as a negotiator in 2014. Almost immediately, crisis negotiations became a passion for him. After 5 years as a negotiator, he became the Training Coordinator for the Milwaukee Police Department Crisis Negotiation Unit. Throughout his time on the unit, he was the primary/secondary negotiator on approximately 100 call outs. As coordinator, Michael created a curriculum and lesson plan for a Basic 40 Hour Negotiation training course and since 2018, has trained 80 new negotiators and conducted 30 negotiator in-service training exercises. He has also coordinated numerous large scale tactical and negotiations training exercises with other state police agencies. Michael was promoted to the rank of Sergeant in 2021 and managed dozens of negotiation and tactical scenes.

He currently enjoys a part-time role as a courthouse bailiff for Milwaukee County.