NEW: NEW POLICE CHIEF ON THE WAY

JEREMY WALTNER  – PUBLISHER

A 51-year-old with a 17-year career with the state of Maryland/Maryland Transportation Authority in Baltimore will be the new chief of police for the city of Freeman. Meeting in regular session Wednesday night, Dec. 2, the Freeman City Council voted to offer the job to Scott Brewer, who early this week accepted it.

Brewer, who served in the Marine Corps from 1987 to 1991 before beginning his career in law enforcement, said he hopes to begin what will be his first-ever chief of police job the second or third week of February.

He has been a K-9 handler with Lexi, a single-purpose police dog, while working for the Maryland Transportation Authority and says she will be making the move to South Dakota with the family.

Scott and his wife, Noellen Brewer, were married in 2005 and have two children — a 22-year-old son named Brandon Flores who is a recent graduate of Texas Tech and a 14-year-old daughter named Isabella Brewer who is a green belt in Okinawan Karate.

Not only did the Brewer family fall in love with South Dakota after visiting for the first time — “We fell in love with it and have been trying to get out there ever since,” Scott said — there is a local connection. His wife has an aunt who lives in Mitchell and they are cousins with Freeman residents Scott and Denise Beynon. It was actually Denise, Brewer said, who tipped him off about the police chief opening in Freeman.

The city has been operating with only one police officer, Jay Slevin, since the resignation of police chief Kirk McCormick in late September.