Brian Freudenthal became the new Cottonwood chief of police on Nov. 12.
“I definitely feel a clean slate, the only thing I’ve noticed is just a need for stability,” Freudenthal said.
Freudenthal’s predecessor, Steve Gesell, was fired by the Cottonwood City Council in September 2023. Cmdr. Christopher Dowell served as acting chief until August, when he was hired as the interim deputy police chief in Sedona. Dowell was elected to Cottonwood City Council in November. Acting Cmdr. Kevin Murie served as acting chief until Freudenthal was hired.
“During the extensive recruitment process, it became evident that Freudenthal possesses not only the necessary experience and skills but also a genuine passion for serving the community,” a city press release stated. “His humble servant leadership style aligns well with the city’s values, and we look forward to the expertise he will bring to the department.”
Freudenthal has as a master’s degree in educational leadership and 28 years of police experience. He started as a cop in Naperville, Ill., a suburb of Chicago, in 1996.
“That’s my great-grandfather in his Chicago police uniform, and then the little guy next to him is my grandfather, who went on to be a Chicago police officer and retired as a sergeant,” Freudenthal said, pointing to a photo of his ancestors. “So I always had positive law enforcement role models around me, and always wanted to get into law enforcement from time I was a child.” Freudenthal said that standing in a blizzard directing traffic during a fatal collision call was what made him want to uproot himself to the Phoenix Police Department.
“It was a lifestyle choice, better place to raise a family, I felt, was in Arizona,” Freudenthal said. “I came out to [Phoenix] in 1999 and 25 years there, I worked my way up through the ranks. I’ve got experience in most everything as it relates to law enforcement. I’ve worked at all different kinds of details. I enjoyed the drug enforcement aspect of it, and I worked in the Drug Enforcement Bureau … and also was involved in the [The Zone] downtown.”
“The Zone” was Phoenix’s largest homeless encampment before it was cleared by court order in November 2023.
Freudenthal ended his time with the Phoenix police as the commander of the Homeland Defense Bureau and Downtown Operations Unit and said that learning to work with service providers for the homeless was one of the biggest lessons he learned.
“[The community] wants us to be able to help that person, whether it’s connect that individual to services or to try to get that individual on the right path,” Freudenthal said. “[When] I started down there, and it was just enforcement, enforcement, tickets, arrests. We found out you’re not going to arrest your way to a solution.”
“I do believe there will be some adjustments that will need to be made,” Freudentha said of the recently-passed Proposition 314, which gave local law enforcement the ability to make arrests for unlawful border crossings. “But I think that it’s going to be some time before that actually starts getting enacted, and we are following through [on] a local level … I don’t foresee the Cottonwood Police Department enforcing immigration unless it’s required.”
“I’ve been happily married for 26 years and my wife got hired by the Sedona school district to be the director of special ed. She starts there Jan. 6, and I have three, I call them kids, but they’re grown,” Freudenthal said.
His oldest son Ryan is currently deployed to Japan with the U.S. Navy, his daughter Kaylee is a first lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force and his youngest, Rylee, is a sophomore at the University of Arizona.
“I have to apologize to my kids on a regular basis for raising them as Chicago sports fans,” Freudenthal said, mentioning the Chicago Bears’ 2024 record.
“On a day off, typically, I get up and work out whether it’s to go to the gym or run or cycle or hike, it’s some kind of fitness. I enjoy the outdoors. Depending on the time of year, I love the fish, so I’ll either be on the river, I’ll be on the lake fishing, whether it’s Dead Horse or on the river, I’ll be fishing and spending time with my family.”
Freudenthal is planning to develop a new strategic plan for CPD as well as a crime plan “within the next couple of months” and said that he has been meeting with other city department heads to identify their needs. He described the crime plan as targeting areas with higher crime rates or those the community identifies as priorities for policing.
“The key for us is to be active,” Freudenthal said. “What I’ve found is active police work tends to deter crime by being visible and active, and that doesn’t necessarily mean making a bunch of arrests or writing a bunch of tickets, but just being visible and being connected to the community is super important.”
Freudenthal said he would like to start an outreach program at Mingus Union High School, following his work with the Phoenix-based nonprofit Fulfillment in Training, where he served as vice president of public service relations. The organization focuses on fitness-based outreach.
He also expressed interest in restarting a Citizen Police Academy in Cottonwood.
Freudenthal said that he saw recruitment and retention as “probably the biggest need” of CPD, which has a current staffing level, taking into account those on leave or in training, of 25 officers out of an authorized 37.5.
“My goal is to make sure that the next chief of police of the Cottonwood Police Department comes within the Cottonwood Police Department,” Freudenthal said. “I feel like, if I’m the leader that I need to be, that will happen.”
Previous Turmoil
Council had discussed at that May meeting — in closed executive session, which Gesell was not allowed to attend per state law — the findings of an Arizona Attorney General’s Office investigation that found that Gesell had discriminated against a female police officer on the basis of her sex and disability. That female officer was subsequently promoted to detective and paid $67,142.92 in compensation to settle her discrimination complaint against the city.
Gesell later filed a lawsuit against the city and several staffers in May 2024, which was moved to the U.S. District Court for Arizona before Judge Dominic W. Lanza, who recently ruled on Dec. 6 against Gesell’s attempt to remove the city’s legal counsel. Gesell is demanding $625,000 from the city.
