The initial meeting to lay the ground work for the Alamo Area Crime Prevention Association was held at the Lackland NCO Club in early 1983. Several subsequent meetings over the next year resulted in the establishment of the Association in 1984.

The first president of the AACPA was Jerry Smith, Chief of Police of the Hondo Police Department. 

Other key players at the time were Ian "Buddy" Lovestock of AACOG, Kyle Coleman and Bill Carver of the Bexar County Sheriff's Department, Conrad Farnhoff of the Fredericksburg PD, and Rick Taylor of the Hondo PD. 

This was in the heyday of the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration (LEAA) and the federal government was providing millions of dollars in crime prevention grants.

As a result, many smaller agencies, such as Seguin, Live Oak, and Windcrest, had Crime Prevention Officers before police departments in major cities.

These grants helped to establish Crime Prevention Units in law enforcement organizations as diverse as the Bexar County District Attorney's Office and San Antonio Park Rangers. Police/Security units of the U. S. Armed Forces were also very active in crime prevention during this time frame.

Initially, the majority of the rank and file of AACPA was opposed to mandatory affiliation with the Texas Crime Prevention Association.

This was because of the large membership of other regional associations and concerns that our Association would loose it's identity.

Eventually, affiliation passed by a slim margin.

As the monies for crime prevention grants dried up, crime prevention units began to disappear and so did membership in the AACPA. 

Fortunately, many of our "Founding Fathers" persevered and, with the assistance of some new blood from the private sector and the San Antonio Police Department our Association has survived. 

A big thank you to Officer Doug Rivers for providing this brief
on the beginnings of the Alamo Area Crime Prevention Association.