If you need to contact me, please reach out to me through my email at mcastagn@ccsf.edu and I will get back within 24–48 hours, excluding weekends and school holidays
My name Is Matthew Castagnola (or Mr. C) and I am your instructor this semester for your Organized Crime and Gangs online class. I was born and raised here in San Francisco, not very far from City College. I went to Saint Ignatius College Preparatory (Class of ’77) and then came here to City College for 2 years and studied, among other things, what was then called Criminology. Then I was off to CSU Hayward (now CSU East Bay).
I entered the San Francisco Police Department in 1981 and over my 34 year career I worked uniformed patrol (Mission, Northern and Southern/T.I. Districts) for 9 years, then I moved to the Tactical Company/ SWAT for about 11 years (this is where I got my start teaching). I was then asked to go and teach at the San Francisco Regional Police Academy where I worked in the Use of Force/ Defensive Tactics office (7 years). I finished off my last 7+ years riding a horse in Golden Gate Park and many of the other 232 parks and streets of San Francisco.
I began teaching while on the SWAT teams, teaching other team members after I returned from trainings but I really became more interested while at the Academy, training over 25 SFPD and Regional recruit classes and the Continual Professional Training to the veteran officers. It was at this time I was approached by City College teachers much like myself (active and retired veteran SFPD officers) and asked to assist in teaching parts of a class in the Administration of Justice Department. In 2013 I was asked to start teaching my own full semester class and after retirement in 2015 I now teach multiple classes in the department.