Chief Matthew J. Benson has been a Rhode Island police officer for the past 19 years; first with the Johnston Police Department and most recently as the Chief of the Cumberland Police Department. Chief Benson has worked extensively in law enforcement leadership, accreditation, labor relations, human resources, research, finance, risk management, strategic planning, policy development, training, education, and crisis negotiations.
Chief Benson is certified as a Crisis Negotiator and Firearms Instructor through the FBI, along with being a Master Field Training Instructor. He’s a former member of the Johnston Police Department’s Special Response entry team, while later transitioning to the role of crisis negotiator. Chief Benson spent 14 years on the Executive Board of the International Brotherhood of Police Officers (IBPO), Local #307, last holding the position of Vice-President when he retired. Chief Benson is a former Rhode Island Representative for the New England Crisis Negotiator’s Association (NECNA) and is currently the Vice-Chairman of the Rhode Island Police Accreditation Coalition (RI-PAC). The Chief has served as an Accreditation Assessment Team Leader for the Rhode Island Police Accreditation Commission (RIPAC) and is currently an Assessor for the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA). Chief Benson is also a Commissioner for the State of Rhode Island’s Accreditation Commission, a member of their Standards Review and Interpretation Committee and is the current Treasurer for its Executive Board.
Chief Benson has been an adjunct faculty member at Johnson & Wales University and Roger Williams University teaching a wide array of courses in Criminal Justice and is also an instructor at the Roger Williams University Justice System Training and Research Institute and Rhode Island Municipal Police Training Academy. The Chief has been a national presenter on programmatic software implementation in law enforcement accreditation and was the panel moderator for the 2017 CALEA conference on recruitment and retention of a diverse workforce. Chief Benson moderated a similar panel at the first-ever Rhode Island Police Accreditation Coalition (RI-PAC) Summit- a conference he co-founded- which was credited with hosting over 200 members of law enforcement from nearly every state in New England. A conference that he is extremely proud to have developed, the RI-PAC Summit also provided sessions on the implementation of body worn cameras, bias and diversity in policing, gender and identity in the police profession, and drone deployment among others.
Chief Benson holds both a Bachelor and a Master of Science degree in Criminal Justice from Roger Williams University, and a Doctorate in Educational Leadership from Johnson &
Wales University.