Citizen Police Academies were designed to help the community better understand law enforcement.  Because of these academies, there has been eagerness by the graduates to "Continue the Experience" and get involved.  Thus, Citizen Police Academy Alumni Associations have been organized throughout Texas and the United States.

The exact purpose varies from association to association with a common thread running through them all; the willingness to make their community a better and safer place to live by working with law enforcement and/or directly with the community.

Each Alumni Association faces the same organizational steps that can be confusing and demanding.  Their purposes must be defined and well understood by all concerned.  This can encompass community involvement, fund raising, education, law enforcement assistance, crime prevention, etc.

Region One was organized to assist and foster the growth of all Citizen Police Academies and their resulting alumni associations.  Region One was established to provide direction, organization, training, and other services that may not be available to the individual alumni associations and to coordinate regional activities that involve all the associations.

It is important to understand a regional group is made up of alumni associations that choose to join and each association remains completely autonomous.

Region One was born out of a small group of alumni members that were meeting to assist Sugar Land in the development of the 1995 Citizens Police Academy Symposium.  The success with this group's networking led to wanting to help other alumni associations.  In January 1999 they held the first organizational meeting of Region One in Missouri City.  After six months of organizing, a Board of Directors was elected and a slate of officers was appointed.

Every alumni association experiences the same start up problems and growing pains.  Some of the most commonly asked questions are: How do we create and develop our Articles of Incorporation?  What do we file with the State and Federal agencies?  Do we need Bylaws and what are they?  How should we organize?  Do we need a Board of Directors?  Where will we get our funds from?  What do we do with our alumni members?

A manual was put together to provide step-by-step instructions in how to get through the organization process.  This has specific "How To" instructions and samples of forms that need to be filed with the State and Federal agencies.

What about those alumni associations that have been around for a while?  Are they carefree and running smoothly? Probably not.  Every alumni association hits the same speed bumps in their start up and as they develop.  Networking with other alumni in your geographic area provides your greatest resource to smooth out that development path.  Why reinvent the wheel when you have someone willing to assist you.

Region One has been very pro-active in helping establish Citizen Police Academies and Alumni Associations in our region.  When you operate within the confines of your alumni world, you are restricted to the resources of that environment.  When you network with regional members, you expand your resources by working with your peers.  Sometimes you teach and sometimes you learn.

Some services provided by Region One are as follows:

• Provide sample Articles of Incorporation and ByLaws to assist new associations in their formation;

• Provide information concerning 501(c)(3) filing and Employer Identification Numbers;

• Provide information on Alumni Administration;

• Provide information on how to work within their association by helping to identify problems, increase enrollment and increase class interaction;

• Provide information on activities to assist in keeping their Alumni involved in community activities;

• Provide information on fund raising activities;

• Provide ideas for continuing education programs and assist in finding guest speakers for Alumni meetings;

• Provide information to help build better and strong police department relations within the community;

• Assist in the continued training of alumni members to enable them to assist their police departments in time of emergencies;

• Provide training to enable members to learn proper search techniques to assist in searches as requested by their department; and

• Provide an annual scholarship to Region One Officers, Alumni and/or their immediate family member with funds to further their education in law enforcement.  This memorial scholarship is funded from donations in the names of deceased members.

Some of the counties covered by Region One include but not necessarily limited to the following: