Lieutenant Colonel Brenton Warne, Commander
Homeland Security Branch

Lieutenant Colonel Brenton Warne was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel on January 1, 2023. He currently serves as the Homeland Security Branch Commander and has more than 25 years with the New Jersey State Police. He oversees the Special Operations and Emergency Management Sections, which consists of nine Bureaus, staffed by over 700 enlisted Troopers and civilians. He also serves as the Deputy State Director of Emergency Management.

Prior to this assignment, he served as Major and Commanding Officer of the Special Operations Section overseeing four Bureaus as well as over 300 enlisted Troopers and civilians. During his time in the Special Operations Section, he led a contingent of 52 enlisted personnel to take part in the 59th Presidential Inauguration Task Force in Washington, D.C. He also ensured fiscal responsibility by providing oversight of an annual budget of more than $25 million dollars and managed over $100 million dollars in physical assets.

Lieutenant Colonel Warne previously served as a Troop “C” Region Commander, where he was responsible for over 300 enlisted and civilian personnel. One of his responsibilities included the Office of State Governmental Security (OSGS). Enlisted and civilian members assigned to the OSGS are responsible for nearly 70 state governmental buildings. He worked to ensure appropriate resource allocation to maximize effectiveness, identified security deficiencies and coordinated mitigation strategies to maximize safety.

Preceding these assignments, he spent ten years in the Special Operations Section. Seven of those years, were spent in the State Police Canine Unit where he handled canines trained in patrol and narcotic detection. Lieutenant Colonel Warne’s most rewarding deployment involved locating an elderly gentleman in the woods who suffered from dementia.

Lieutenant Colonel Warne earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Fairleigh Dickinson University. He has been married to his wife Barbara, whom he met in high school, for 31 years. His son Devon is a New Jersey State Trooper and his son Matt attends East Stroudsburg University.

Major Christopher M. DeMaise, Commanding Officer
New Jersey Office of Emergency Management

Christopher M. DeMaise was promoted to Major on January 1, 2022 and has faithfully served more than 24 years with the New Jersey State Police (NJSP). He currently oversees five Bureaus as well as 382 enlisted Troopers and civilians. He previously served as the Bureau Chief of the Recovery Bureau, where he served as the State Coordinating Officer (SCO) for New Jersey’s disaster response to DR-4614 (Hurricane Ida) and Governor’s Authorized Representative for numerous Presidentially Declared Disasters. While in this position, he was tasked with oversight of the Grant Management for Coronavirus Relief Funds for the State of New Jersey.

Prior to this assignment, Major 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, Major DeMaise spent twelve 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.

Major DeMaise proudly served the United States Marine Corps for six years (active duty/reserves) before joining the NJSP. Major DeMaise 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 earned 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 23 years, and they have three children, Tyler, Emma and Layla. Emma currently attends Rowan University and Tyler has recently graduated from the institution.