Kai R. Martensen, a criminal justice consultant and former aide to the Baltimore County police chief, died Tuesday after a heart attack in Alexandria, Va., on his way to work. He was 62 and lived in Towson.
At his death, he was a principal associate in the Institute for Law and Justice in Alexandria. Before then, he worked for the Jefferson Institute for Justice Studies after leaving the county Police Department in 1990.
As a consultant for Public Management Services in Alexandria, he helped prepare a study of the Police Department that recommended revisions in the salary structure, more authority for district commanders and the hiring of civilians to fill many jobs then being filled by police officers.
Chief Cornelius J. Behan, now retired, hired him in 1979 to help implement the proposals. Before he left the department in 1990, he was involved in the Repeat Offender Program Experiment, community policing with the Citizen Oriented Police Enforcement program and programs to reduce handgun violence and spousal abuse.
He also taught courses at the University of Maryland in College Park and Baltimore County, and was a member of the Governor's Executive Advisory Board, the board of the Baltimore County Police Foundation and a consultant to the Maryland Office of Strategic Drug Enforcement Coordination.
Born in Berkeley, Calif., he served in the Marine Corps in the Korean War and joined the Oakland, Calif., Police Department in the late 1950s.
He was a lieutenant in its Research and Development Division when he left the department in 1965 to become a consultant for the International Association of Chiefs of Police.
In 1968 and 1969, he was executive director of the California Council on Criminal Justice, then was a consultant, working independently and for companies.
In 1958, he earned a bachelor's degree in criminology at the University of California at Berkeley, and 20 years later, a master's degree in public administration at the University of Southern California.
He collected impressionist prints and lithographs.
A memorial service was to be held at 10 a.m. today at Immaculate Conception Roman Catholic Church, Baltimore and Ware avenues, Towson.
He is survived by his partner, Rebecca P. Gowen of Towson; three sons, Kiv and Erik Martensen, both of Santa Cruz, Calif., and Dana Martensen of the San Francisco area; and a daughter, Terri Martensen of Sacramento, Calif.