Detective Matthew Beltrami Memorial Award
Detective Matthew Beltrami was a 17-year veteran of the West Warwick, RI Police Department. Matt was the Crisis Negotiation Team Leader for the regional Swat Team, a diligent Opioid Response Liaison, an honor guard member, and trained in crisis intervention. Matt was a proud Veteran of the United States Air Force and a former New England Crisis Negotiators Association (NECNA) Rhode Island state representative and vice-president. He was extremely dedicated to his duties, selflessly giving of his time to his community, his peers and those around him. For his efforts, Matt was well-respected and recognized throughout the crisis negotiator community.
Sadly, Matt died by suicide on April 1st, 2021. He often shared inspiring quotes or words of his own. One of his last and enduring quotes was, “Don’t be ashamed of your story. It will inspire others.” Throughout his tenure, Matt was a zealot for mental health awareness and suicide prevention. His commitment and dedication will forever be an inspiration to all who knew him.
In his memory, NECNA would like to honor Matt’s significant contributions to crisis negotiations, crisis intervention, mental health awareness, substance abuse response and suicide prevention. NECNA has established an award in Matt’s name to be given to a recipient who exemplifies extreme dedication and inspires others through selfless service and commitment. These are the qualities that Matt exhibited and earned him the admiration of family, friends, and colleagues throughout New England.
Criteria for Award
A. General Description – The Matthew Beltrami Memorial Award for Dedication and Inspiration is an esteemed honor that will be given out by the New England Crisis Negotiators
Association (NECNA). The award will recognize “exceptional” dedication, contributions and inspiration in the following areas which include, but are not limited to, crisis negotiation, crisis intervention, mental health awareness, substance abuse response and suicide prevention.
Only one award may be granted by NECNA each year. The recipient will be presented with the award at the annual NECNA Conference. If the recipient cannot accept the award in person, they may choose someone to accept the award on their behalf.
B. Eligibility – An individual who is part of a negotiation team or a crisis worker attached to a team, are eligible when nominated by a NECNA member in accordance with the procedures set forth below.
C. Nominations – Nomination for the Matthew Beltrami Memorial Award are subject to the
following procedures:
Submit nominations
Identify the nominee by full name, title, organization, number of years as a crisis negotiator, and years of service.
Provide detailed information about the nominee’s work achievements in the areas of crisis negotiations, mental health awareness and suicide prevention. Please explain how the nominee inspires, whom they have inspired and why you believe this nominee is worthy of the award. Please include any notable callouts or any examples that would constitute dedication and inspiration to the public and/or peers.
D. Selection of the Recipient – The following procedure shall be used in the selection process:
An award committee shall include (5) five members of the Board of Directors. The award committee shall convene in person, remotely or by other means. Each award committee board member shall evaluate each nominee application. After a selection has been made, it will be forwarded to the Board of Directors for final approval.
If the award committee selects a nominee to receive the award, the award recipient shall be notified in advance of the conference and/or before being formally recognized publicly.
The award committee members reserve the right to not offer an award in any given year. The reasons not to offer an award include, but are not limited to, nominees not meeting the criteria, no nominations in a given year. The deadline for applications shall be April 1st of each calendar year. The nomination and application procedure are outlined in Section C.
Nomination
Please complete the online nomination form for the Detective Matthew Beltrami Memorial Award