How to Join
Thank you for visiting our web site. If you are considering becoming a member of the LAFOP or just want to see what the organization is about, please take a look below.
Interested in becoming a member?
There are three ways to become a member of the Louisiana Fraternal Order of Police.
What is A Grand Lodge?
The Fraternal Order of Police was founded in 1915 in Pittsburgh, Penn., by two police officers. Since then it has grown into the nation’s largest police organization with over 318,000 members in over 2,000 lodges in 49 states.
Membership is open to all full-time law enforcement officers regardless of race, sex, creed, religion or rank. The Grand Lodge is governed by trustees, representatives from each State Lodge, and an Executive Board, which is elected bi-annually at the National Conference.
What is A Local Lodge?
The Local Lodge is a fraternal organization made up of law enforcement officers from a given community. Local lodges are independent bodies that conduct their own affairs. Officers are elected and the constitution and by-laws are drafted and approved in conformity with the State and Grand lodges.
Activities for each Local Lodge are innumerable. In addition, most also provide many benefits to members that individual law enforcement departments are unable to provide.
Each Local Lodge elects trustees and delegates whose job it is to represent their membership at State Board meetings and conferences. This ensures members have a far-reaching voice in FOP matters.
Who Can Join The FOP?
Any full time or retired law enforcement officer may join the FOP. It takes 10 full time or retired officers to start a lodge. In recent years the Louisiana FOP recognized that there are a number of Louisiana law enforcement officers who wish to be affiliated with the Fraternal Order of Police, but found it difficult to achieve the numbers needed to charter a new lodge.
Many law enforcement agencies in the state are comprised of less that ten sworn officers, and often, the proximity of these smaller agencies to one another cause conditions that are not conducive to collectively creating a combined lodge. In addition, on occasions political influence by those unfamiliar with the FOP’s mission and goals often created obstacles in the formation of a local lodge.
With that in mind the members of the Louisiana State Lodge created Louisiana Fraternal Order of Police Pelican Lodge 100, an open membership lodge for those law enforcement officers working where a lodge does not exists. If you are an officer who falls into one of these categories and would like to become a member, please contact us and we will send you the information to get you started.
So what do our members receive when they join?
If you are a full-time law enforcement officer and share the concerns of fellow officers, the Fraternal Order of Police gives you an opportunity to unite and make your voice heard. Ultimately, this partnership aids in improving our profession.
At the National level
At the State level
What makes it work?
Local Lodges are in control! The FOP is a member driven organization. That’s the difference! Other organizations are controlled by a few individuals from the National or State, which hand out directives. The FOP is control by its members.
