The National Latino Peace Officers Association was founded in the early 1970’s by John Parraz, Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department, and Vicente Calderon, California Highway Patrol, San Jose Office. Since then the organization has become one of the largest Latino Officer Association in America, with NLPOA Chapters across the Nation.
The goal of the National Latino Peace Officers Association is to promote equality and professionalism in law enforcement. The objectives of the organization are to create a fraternal/professional Association that provides its members and members of the community with career training; conferences and workshops to promote education and career advancement; mentoring; and a strong commitment to community service.
Citizenship programs, mentor programs, reading programs in our elementary schools, training programs for individuals looking for a career in law enforcement and promotional workshops for our police and sheriff’s departments are just a few of the contributions from our association.
NLPOA MISSION
The mission of the association is to eliminate prejudice and discrimination in the Criminal Justice System (particularly in law enforcement). To create a fraternal/professional association that provides support, advocacy, personal and professional development to its members. To prevent and reduce juvenile delinquency; and lessen neighborhood tension in the Latino communities, through awareness and role modeling, provide bi-lingual assistance to the public, and bridge the gap between the Latino community and the police.
NLPOA PREAMBLE
The National Latino Peace Officers Association (NLPOA) can make positive contributions to the law enforcement process in our Nation, fraternally establish ourselves as an association to assist, support, and motivate change, for the betterment of all our citizens. We are aware that the people served by the criminal justice system are varied ethnically and culturally, therefore, the system must be responsive to all the people of the community. The NLPOA, working cooperatively with law enforcement and the community, will seek to recruit Latinos for employment, into the criminal justice system. The NLPOA endeavors to serve the community and strive to improve the quality of life for all citizens (NLPOA Founded 1972).
