Daniel Alioto

Dan Alioto began working for the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) after a nearly 23-year police career, retiring at the rank of Captain with the St. Mary’s County (MD) Sheriff’s Office. Dan is currently an Associate Deputy Director and directs the Sheriffs Outreach Initiative to include more Sheriffs in PERF’s ongoing projects and to provide programming and resources directed at Sheriffs. Dan also works with various law enforcement agencies throughout the nation on management studies, response preparedness issues, policy review, and federal grant projects which have included first-line supervision, law enforcement response to domestic violence and incidents of sexual assault, and opioids. He led the development of PERF’s Critical Response Toolkit for First-Line Supervisors.

Dan is a key member of PERF’s ICAT (Integrating Communications, Assessment, and Tactics) team, serving as a lead trainer and content coordinator for this nationally recognized de-escalation training program. He has provided training instruction sessions to thousands of law enforcement members across the country.  Dan currently plays a vital role in PERF’s Senior Management Institute for Police (SMIP) executive development training, which is held yearly at Boston University. He assists with overall program management, with a focus on student outreach and relations.

During his career, Dan worked in all major elements of the St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Office, including as a commander in the Criminal Investigations, Patrol, and Vice and Narcotics divisions, which were part of both FBI and DEA Task Forces. Dan was a member of the Crisis Negotiation Team since 1999 and served as the unit’s commander for more than 15 years.  He attended numerous leadership training courses including the DEA Drug Unit Commander Academy (DUCA #68), FBI Law Enforcement Executive Development training, Southern Police Institute’s Chief and Executive Leadership courses, and Maryland Police Training Commission’s Leadership Challenge XXI. He is also a Trilogy Award recipient from FBI LEEDA (Supervisor, Command and Executive Leadership Institutes).

Dan utilized his wide range of experience and training to develop conventional and non-conventional strategies to forecast criminal trends and to ensure that officers are equipped, trained and sufficiently staffed to address those trends. 

He received his law enforcement instructors training through the Maryland Police Training Commission in 2000, teaching a variety of courses through the Southern Maryland Criminal Justice Academy. Dan was selected by the Sheriff to begin the Sheriff’s Office “Crisis Intervention Team” (CIT) to ensure the safe handling of incidents involving persons with mental illness, developmental disabilities, co-occurring disorders and brain injuries. He was trained in the “Memphis Model” of CIT through the Montgomery County (MD) Police Department and was the overseer of that program until his retirement.

Dan was appointed by the Governor to the State of Maryland Prescription Drug Monitoring Board as the lone law enforcement representative from 2012 to 2017. He is also secretary of the Maryland Chapter of the National Association of Drug Diversion Investigators and has served on the St. Mary’s County Overdose Prevention Board, Behavioral Health Action Team and Overdose Fatality Review Board. Dan teaches criminal justice at the College of Southern Maryland.

Dan holds a bachelor of science degree in organizational leadership from Mountain State University and a master’s in management from Johns Hopkins University. He is a graduate of Session #240 of the FBI National Academy as well as a graduate of the Senior Management Institute for Police (SMIP) Session #71.