Branch Commander, Homeland Security Branch, New Jersey State Police
Christopher M. DeMaise was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel on June 1, 2023, and has faithfully served more than 24 years with the New Jersey State Police (NJSP). He currently oversees the Homeland Security Branch which encompasses the New Jersey Office of Emergency Management and the Special Operations Section. This group is comprised of more than 438 enlisted Troopers and 442 civilians. He serves as the Deputy State Director of Emergency Management and has held roles such as State Emergency Response Commission Co-Chair, State Coordinating Officer (SCO) and Governor Authorized Representative (GAR) for numerous Presidentially Declared Disasters. He also serves as the Accountability Officer for the American Rescue Plan funds awarded to the New Jersey State Police and has been tasked with integrity monitoring for $2.4 Billion Coronavirus Relief Funds for the State of New Jersey.
Prior to this assignment, LTC DeMaise served in various assignments within the New Jersey Office of Emergency Management. He served as the Unit Head of the Urban Search and Rescue (US&R) Unit and oversaw the transition of New Jersey Task Force 1 (NJ-TF1), the state’s Urban Search and Rescue team, into the Federal US &R system. As the NJ-TF1 Representative, he led deployments to incidents such as Hurricane Matthew (North Carolina), Hurricane Harvey (Texas) and Hurricane Florence (North Carolina). He also served as the Incident Commander and other Command and General staff positions for several Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC) deployments to Puerto Rico (Operation FURIA- Hurricane Fiona-2022, NJSPEAR- Earthquake Response- 2020, and NJPRIDE- Hurricane Maria-2017.)
Preceding his assignment to the Emergency Management Section, LTC DeMaise spent 12 years in the Special Operations Section. He was promoted to Lieutenant of the NJSP Technical Emergency and Missions Specialist Unit (T.E.A.M.S.) where he initiated numerous programmatic goals based on enhancing the training and certification of the Unit’s membership, enabling grant funding of resources as well as realigning the records management processes of the Unit to a more professional standard. During his assignment in the Special Operations Section, he served as the Station Commander of the Atlantic City Marine Station and Training Officer for the Section. He served as Chair of the Training and Civil Disturbance Response Committee for Superbowl XLVIII held at Met Life Stadium, East Rutherford, NJ.
LTC DeMaise proudly served the United States Marine Corps for six years (active duty/reserves) before joining the NJSP. He has earned a Master’s in Human Resources Administration from Seton Hall University and a Master’s in Security Studies from the Naval Postgraduate School. He also attained a Bachelor’s Degree in Law & Justice with a Minor in Spanish from Rowan University, where he now serves as an adjunct professor. He has been married to his wife Chrissy for 24 years, and they have three children, Tyler, Emma and Layla. Emma currently attends Rowan University and Tyler has recently graduated from the institution.