Michael Martin

Undersheriff - Ramsey County Sheriff's Office

Michael Martin brings more than three decades of distinguished law enforcement experience, combining operational excellence with national-level training and policy development. He currently serves as undersheriff of the Apprehension Bureau at the Ramsey County, Minnesota, Sheriff’s Office. In this position, he commands elite units addressing Minnesota’s most pressing public safety challenges, including the Violent Crime Enforcement Team, the Carjacking and Auto Theft Team, and teams focused on nonfatal shootings, gang activity, and fugitive apprehension. He serves as vice chair of the Minnesota Advisory Committee for the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) and as a member of the Minnesota Violent Crime Coordinating Council. Since 2008, Undersheriff Martin has served as a trainer, facilitator, and curriculum developer for the Institute for Intergovernmental Research’s (IIR) National Gang Center, funded by the U.S. Department of Justice. In this capacity, he has trained thousands of law enforcement professionals across the United States, from street-level investigators to executive command staff and prosecutors. His specialized courses cover gang investigations, task force supervision, civil rights protection in intelligence gathering, and the Comprehensive Gang Model. His expertise has taken him to major cities, rural communities, and tribal nations, including the Navajo Nation, the Menominee Reservation, and multiple other indigenous communities. Undersheriff Martin retired from the Minneapolis, Minnesota, Police Department after a career spanning 1991 to 2014, during which he rose through the ranks from patrol officer to inspector. He was an officer and sergeant in the Minneapolis Police Gang Unit and commander of the Minnesota Gang Strike Force. While serving as commander of the 4th Precinct, he led 129 personnel and achieved significant reductions in violent crime through collaborative community partnerships. His leadership during critical incidents earned him national recognition: as investigative commander for the 2007 I-35W bridge collapse, he coordinated multiagency response efforts with the National Transportation Safety Board, which became a national model for transportation disaster response. He successfully led responses to a devastating northside tornado and an active-shooter incident at Accent Signage Systems, earning the MetLife Foundation Community-Police Partnership Award for his innovative crime-reduction strategies. Undersheriff Martin’s emergency management expertise expanded during his tenure as assistant director of the University of Minnesota’s Department of Emergency Management from 2014 to 2019, where he developed the institution’s first Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)-compliant Threat and Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment and coordinated emergency planning across five campuses. As the national vice president and Minnesota Chapter president of the Midwest Gang Investigators Association and a delegate to the National Alliance of Gang Investigators Associations, Undersheriff Martin continues to shape national policy and best practices in gang enforcement while protecting civil rights and civil liberties. His career reflects an unwavering commitment to evidence-based policing, interagency collaboration, and the development of the next generation of law enforcement leaders. Undersheriff Martin holds a master of Arts degree in police leadership, education, and administration from the University of St. Thomas and a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from the University of Minnesota. His extensive executive training includes the Police Executive Research Forum’s Senior Management Institute for Police, the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Law Enforcement Executive Development Seminar, and the Southern Police Institute’s Administrative Officers Course. He maintains comprehensive FEMA certifications in the National Incident Management System and the Incident Command System.

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