The Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, Inc. (CALEA^®) is pleased to announce the appointment of New Mexico’s Secretary of State, Rebecca Vigil-Giron, as CALEA’s newest Commissioner.  The appointment is for three years. 

 

CALEA was established as an independent accrediting authority in 1979 by the four major law enforcement executive associations: International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP); National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE); National Sheriffs' Association (NSA); and Police Executive Research Forum (PERF).  The Commission has 21 members; of whom 11 are law enforcement practitioners and the remaining 10 are from the public and private sectors.  Commissioners are appointed by the founding organizations and serve without compensation.  The Commission meets three times each year.

 

CALEA’s purpose and mission is two-fold.  First, to establish a body of standards designed to (a) increase public safety agency capabilities to prevent and control crime; (b) increase agency effectiveness and efficiency in the delivery of public safety services; (c) increase cooperation and coordination with other public safety agencies; and (d) increase citizen and employee confidence in the goals, objectives, policies, and practices of the public safety agency.  Second, to establish and administer a series of accreditation programs through which public safety agencies can demonstrate voluntarily that they meet an estab­lished set of professionally recognized standards leading to excellence in management and service delivery.

 

The new Commissioner is an 11^th generation New Mexican born and raised in Taos, New Mexico. She is the highest-ranking elected Hispanic woman state official in the United States.  As Secretary of State, she is second in line to succeed the office of Governor and is the Chief Elections Officer in the state. 

 

She was first elected to this post in 1987 on a platform of election reform and was successful in breaking down restrictive voter registration requirements and established one of the most advanced voter registration and elections management systems in the nation.  She was re-elected in 1998 and 2001 becoming the first New Mexico Secretary of State to be elected to that post more than once.

 

Between her terms as Secretary of State, Commissioner Vigil-Giron used her expertise in elections as a consultant for the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) in Nicaragua, Equatorial Guinea, and the Dominican Republic. She also served as a Member State Delegate with the United Nations in Angola, Africa’s presidential elections.  In 1991 she was appointed Executive Director of the New Mexico Commission on the Status of Women and in 2004, she was elected President of the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS).

 

The new Commissioner brings a wealth of knowledge and experience that will be beneficial to CALEA in meeting its mission. 

 

We congratulate and welcome the Honorable Rebecca Vigil-Giron to the Commission.