The 17-year veteran is recognized for implementing transformative community programs, fostering positive community relationships, mentoring youth, and implementing crisis intervention programs.
Lt. Matthew S. Johnson, a University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) police officer, has been selected to join the Obama Foundation’s 2024 Leaders USA program. This international program focuses on emerging leaders who are driving systems-level change across specific sectors and issues.
The nonpartisan program is geared toward “emerging leaders working in government, civil society, and the private sector who have demonstrated a commitment to advancing the common good. The program aims to inspire, empower, and connect regional cohorts of changemakers to accelerate positive and lasting change in their communities and throughout their region and across our world.”
Drawing from a field of 6,000 applicants worldwide, Johnson is one of just 100 applicants chosen. He is the only law enforcement professional in the current cohort and only the second one ever chosen. Johnson, who joined the UMB police force in August 2007, is currently the Community Outreach Commander, Technical Services Commander, and Certified Change Management Practitioner.
Thomas Leone, MSL, assistant vice president for public safety and chief of police, wasn’t surprised by Johnson’s selection. “We were excited to hear that Lieutenant Johnson was accepted into the Obama Foundation’s Leaders USA cohort,” Leone said. “But we also weren’t surprised. His hard work and commitment to our community doesn’t go unnoticed. His selection is a testament to his personal commitment to the force, to UMB, and to our greater community.”
Johnson, who is known as MJ by many around campus, learned about the program from fellow officer Chief Jason P. Armstrong. He met Armstrong in 2019 as both men were being honored by the International Association of Chiefs of Police’s “40 Under 40” group, awarded to up-and-coming leaders in the law enforcement profession. At the time, Armstrong was serving as the chief of police in Ferguson, Mo., where he was chosen to lead the department through transformative reform efforts to ensure constitutional policing.
The two budding leaders stayed in touch. In 2023, Armstrong was selected as part of the inaugural cohort of the Obama Foundation’s Leaders USA program. Upon completion of the program, he suggested other law enforcement professionals apply. Johnson took his advice and began the application process at the start of 2024.
The written application took him several months to complete, and he interviewed with the program’s board in June. Then, he waited. The news came at the beginning of September that he was accepted. Like his colleague Armstrong, Johnson also would be the only law enforcement professional in his cohort.
Family Matters
Johnson’s interest in law enforcement started early. He was inspired by two uncles who were in law enforcement. Even at a young age, they made him think, “That’s a job that could keep my attention and I would like to do it.”
Johnson graduated from high school in 2002. With the images of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks fresh in his and everyone’s mind, he enrolled in the Marine Corps. He landed in an anti-terrorism group that took him to 22 countries in four years. After serving, he learned about the UMB Police Department from another uncle who suggested he consider joining. He joined the UMB force in August 2007, with his badge getting pinned on him by one of the uncles who inspired him years earlier.
A consensus finder at heart, Johnson is aware that much of the community is skeptical of police. While he understands the sentiment, he also sees it as an opportunity. Changing the policing paradigm and rebuilding trust with the community is at the heart of the way he approaches his profession and has shaped his career.
COAST, Community Engagement Academy, PAL
Johnson serves as commander of UMB Police and Public Safety’s Community Outreach and Support Team (COAST). Created in 2018, the program works in conjunction with the University of Maryland School of Social Work, pairing interns with police officers on the street. They assist at-risk individuals with everything from mental health and addiction issues to homelessness, hunger, and obtaining vital records.
Johnson created the Community Engagement Academy to reach out to community members.
“We invite community members, students, and staff to participate. They get to learn a little bit of everything, from the hiring and training process, de-escalation techniques, and when and why the use of force is sometimes necessary,” he said. “And then there’s the simulator. Attendees get to put on facsimile weapons and, with the use of a screen, get to experience being a police officer responding to different calls. That is valuable because when participants do that, they get to see a different perspective and how quickly officers need to make really difficult decisions.”
But the academy’s reach doesn’t stop there. It’s also a two-way communications system, with the officers seeking input and feedback. “We show the community, ‘This is the way we do things.’ But then we also ask if they think we should be doing something differently, or if they’ve experienced something that they want us to know about, this is a place to tell us. This creates an open dialogue, allowing us to make changes to how we do things in real time.”
In addition to all of the above, Johnson oversees one of the last remaining Police Athletic/Activities Leagues (PAL) in the city.
“That’s the most rewarding part of my job,” he said without hesitation. “At one point, there were more than 20 PALs in the city. Today, we’re down to two. Thanks to the UMB PAL program, when we cross over MLK Boulevard and into the community we serve, we already know most of the kids. We already know most of the parents. And perhaps more importantly, they know us. We are all on the same side, part of the same community. As a result, we can help each other.”
Johnson knows change will come slowly. “We’re doing this at a time when policing has been vilified because of the inability of policing to adjust over the years,” he said. “One of the challenges we face is that police training and policies are often steeped in traditions. As a result, they don’t always react to changes as quickly as the rest of society. I look at this an opportunity as opposed to a problem.”
Johnson does see change happening, even if it’s anecdotal. “It’s very hard to measure prevention, but it’s not hard for me to see the impact when I talk to parents, or when I talk to youth and they’re excited to go on field trips with us over the summertime, or they’re excited that we’re doing a collaboration with the community Y, or even when the kids just stop to just say ‘Hi’ to an officer on patrol,” he said.
Asked how he feels about the attention, Johnson said, “I’m very humbled. I could never have done any of this without the support of all my colleagues, Chief Thomas Leone, and Dr. Dawn Rhodes [UMB’s chief business and finance officer and senior vice president]. Honestly, it can be a little intimidating because of the level of accomplishment that everyone in my cohort has. It’s hard to be in a setting with all these leaders and not feel overwhelmed by all these amazing back stories. But one thing that I know for a fact is I’m not going to waste this opportunity.”
The foreseeable future offers no respite for Johnson. In addition to his regular duties, his obligations with PAL, and his commitment to the Obama Foundation program, he recently was accepted into the University of Maryland, College Park’s Executive MBA program — all of which will be happening as he and his fiancée are planning a wedding. It’s a bold schedule that might be considered a reach for many. For Johnson, it’s just part of who he is, how he leads, and his own hope for the future.
Learn more about the Obama Foundation’s Leaders USA program and view the 2024 cohort at Obama.org.