Michael Morrison
Michael T. Morrison is the Director and Founder of MTM Enterprises, an organization dedicated to building communication between local law enforcement and the communities they serve.
Morrison began his career in law enforcement in 1987 at Essex County College as police officer, and in 1988 worked for the N.J. Transit Police in Penn Station Newark until 1990. In 1990 he was hired as the second African American police officer in the history of the Maplewood, New Jersey township.
Through hard work and dedication creating programs to improve fractured relationships within the community in 1999 Morrison became the first African American detective in Maplewood, NJ and as a youth aid detective was assigned to Columbia High School as the District’s first school resource officer.
In this role he realized the disenfranchised and marginalized students in the high school needed intervention to ensure academic success and graduation, and in 2002 he developed the South Orange Maplewood Mentor Program, a 501c (3) organization dedicated to providing mentors for at-risk youth. Over 200 students participated with a graduation success rate of 98%.
In 2005 Morrison became the first African American promoted to the supervisory position of Sergeant in the Maplewood, NJ township Police Department. In response to a major incident between local police officers and a group of at-risk youth in the community in 2016, Morrison created the inaugural Community Policing Program to repair and improve the relationship between the police and the community, called Officer Mike’s Open Gym.
For Officer Mike’s Open Gym, Morrison recruited over 30 police officers to partner with teachers, preachers and at-risk students after school daily, for basketball, boxing, jump rope, and dialogue to build understanding, trust and relationships. And, because physical activity and building relationships can work up an appetite, he recruited local restaurants to generously provide food and refreshments. This program was adopted by the police department and is now a part of their community policing division.
As a consultant for police departments on community policing, Morrison is proficient in evaluating and identifying causes of breaches in community trust and assisting in the design of restorative programs with quantitative and qualitative results.
In 2018 Morrison was recruited to serve on the Newark Anti-Violence Committee (NAVC) Advisory Board. NAVC is committed to supporting victims of violent crimes in Newark, NJ.
Morrison is the recipient of the “Beloved Community” Award from South Orange, NJ, the NAACP of the Oranges and Maplewood, NJ., and they named him “warrior for youth".
A graduate of the New Brunswick Theological Seminary with a Master of Arts in Ministry and Community Leadership, Morrison was ordained as a reverend in January 2021. He serves as Assistant Pastor at First Baptist Church of South Orange, NJ.
Morrison is the author of “Black Cop” the story of one officer’s struggle to stay committed to his community while fighting systemic racism in the police department. Morrison sold the rights to his book to Blanchard House of London, and it was developed into an 8-episode podcast “Black and Blue” due out in the fall of 2023.