Director of Research and Project Development, ICMA Center for Public Safety Management
Email: lmatarese@cpsm.us
Phone: 716-969-1360
Mr. Matarese was the founder of ICMA’s public safety consulting services in 2005, which has since evolved into CPSM. He has over 50 years’ experience as a law enforcement officer, police chief, public safety director, city manager and major city Human Resources Commissioner. He was one of the original advisory board members and trainer for the first NIJ/ICMA Community Oriented Policing Project which has subsequently trained thousands of municipal practitioners on the techniques of the community policing philosophy over the years. He has managed or conducted almost five hundred studies of emergency services agencies.
Recognized as an innovator by his law enforcement colleagues, he served as the Chairman of the SE Quadrant, Florida, Blue Lighting Strike Force, a 71 agency, U.S. Customs Service anti-terrorist and narcotics task force and as the 57th president of the Miami-Dade County Police Chief’s Association – one of America’s largest regional police associations. He led a team of 25 South Florida police officers to New York City to assist NYPD after the 9/11 attacks. He has represented ICMA on national projects involving the United States Department of Homeland Security, The Department of Justice, Office of Community Policing and the Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance. He was a member of the US Attorney General’s Commission on Officer Safety and Wellness and a member of a sub-committee of the President’s Commission on 21st Century Policing. He has also served as a project reviewer for the National Institute of Justice and was the subject matter expert on several ICMA / USAID police projects in Central America. As a public safety director, he has managed fire / EMS systems including ALS transport. He was an early national proponent of public access and police response with AEDs.
Mr. Matarese has presented before ICMA on numerous occasions and to most major public administration organization’s annual conferences and was a keynote speaker at an annual PERF conference. He was a plenary speaker at the 2011 TAMSEC Homeland security conference in Linköping, Sweden and at the 2010 UN Habitat PPUD Conference in Barcelona, Spain.
He has a Master’s degree in Public Administration from Florida Atlantic University and a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Rutgers University. He is a member of two national honor societies and has served as an adjunct faculty member for several universities. He holds the ICMA Credentialed Manager designation, as well as Certified Professional designation from the International Public Management Association- Human Resources. Mr. Matarese is a life member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police and of ICMA.