|
The Law Enforcement Association
of Asian Pacifics (LEAAP) is part of a fraternal
organization under the National Asian Peace
Officers Association (NAPOA). Here is a brief
history of NAPOA.
In 1980, Asian American Peace
Officers in New York City were facing a dilemma:
As a result of a ruling of a law suit in the
federal district court, that decreed the
composition of the incoming of the class must
reflect the racial balance of the pool of
eligible candidates. The ruling applied only to
Hispanics and African Americans candidates who
made up 1/3 of the candidate pool. Asian
Americans weren't included in the ruling as a
minority class within the eligible candidate
pool, and were included in the majority pool of
candidates.
The Asian Jade Society (AJS) had
never faced a situation like this before. After
making some inquires through the Asian press,
contact was made with the Northern California
Asian Peace Officers Association (NCAPOA), based
in San Francisco and the California Oriental
Peace Officers Association (COPOA). They had
experience dealing with the inner workings of
the political system. Paul Chu and Eugene Lee
from the New York Police Department met with
Randall Quan and Ben Lee from the Los Angeles
Police Department, and Bryon Wong from the San
Francisco District Attorney's Office to discuss
the problem. After meeting with NCAPOA and COPOA,
AJS used the information and advice to get a
ruling favorable to Asian-American candidates.
The ruling directed the NYPD to give Asian
American candidates the same protection as that
afforded to Hispanic and African American
candidates.
This event demonstrated the need
for formal communication among all Asian
American Peace Officers. Thus, the National
Asian Peace Officers Association (NAPOA) was
chartered in 1981 during this meeting in
California as a non-profit fraternal
organization.
The NAPOA was created by three
existing Peace Officers associations from across
the country: California Oriental Peace Officers
Association, The Northern California Asian Peace
Officers Association, and The Asian Jade
Society, New York Police Department.
The first NAPOA
conference was held during June 1981 in San
Francisco, California, hosted by the NCAPOA.
Since then, national conferences have been held
every year in New York, San Francisco, Los
Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Boston, New Orleans,
and Las Vegas. The 2008 NAPOA conference will
take place in Washington D.C.
|
