Dr. Felix Martinez is currently Director of Public Safety for St. Mary’s College of Maryland. He was a former Police Officer for the Riverdale Park Police Department and joined the Police Department in June 2020 to improve police-community relations. Since joining, he has been a community voice and advocating needed police change through his role in the Community Engagement Task Force for the department. Additionally, Dr. Martinez focuses on police training and policy advocacy with the hopes of helping increase police legitimacy by improving the quality of police work while on patrol.
Dr. Martinez has a wealth of knowledge in law enforcement as he has held various positions such as Campus Security Assistant, Campus Peace Officer, Campus Police Sergeant, Probation Officer (Sex Offender Unit), and Correctional Officer (medium-maximum unit). His breadth of knowledge has been sought as he presented at the American Society of Evidence-Based Policing (ASEBP) Symposium. He is also an Adjunct at Howard University, where he teaches social science courses such as Principles of Criminal Justice and Corrections for the Department of Sociology and Criminology.
Dr. Martinez holds a bachelor’s degree in General Studies with a concentration in Crime and Criminology from Southern New Hampshire University and a master’s degree in Professional Studies in Homeland Security and Criminal Justice Leadership from St. John’s University. Recently, he obtained his Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership focusing on the impact of the community policing model in a predominantly Latino neighborhood.
