Fraternal Order of Police Birmingham Lodge No. 1
The Fraternal Order of Police Birmingham Lodge No. 1 is Alabama's oldest and largest social and fraternal organization for law enforcement officers, with over 1,100 members. The lodge was founded in 1941 by a group of 31 officers of the Birmingham Police Department. It was chartered by the National Fraternal Order of Police on December 1 of that year with 235 active members on the rolls.
The Lodge's first meeting hall was located in downtown Birmingham on the 2100 block of 5th Avenue North. It moved to a new building on Green Springs Highway in the 1960s. The new building included meeting and banquet halls as well as a recreation center with an Olympic sized swimming pool.
In 1991 the Birmingham FOP Lodge commissioned the Centurion statue as a memorial to law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty. The memorial is located in the plaza in front of Jefferson County's Mel Bailey Criminal Justice Center.
In the 1990s the Lodge decided to sell its property on Green Springs and relocated within the Birmingham city limits. A new site on Winewood Road off Alabama Highway 79 was chosen. The Lodge held its first meeting there on February 6, 2001.
Member's units
Fraternal Order of Police Birmingham Lodge No. 1 consists of members from the following units:
- Birmingham Police Department
- United States Marshals Service for the Northern District of Alabama
- Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles
- Trussville Police Department
- Homewood Police Department
- Jefferson County District Attorney's Office
- United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms
- UAB Police Department
- Bessemer Police Department
- Lawson State Police Department
- Hoover Police Department
- Mountain Brook Police Department
- Leeds Police Department
- Midfield Police Department
- St Clair Correctional Facility
- Attorney Generals Office
- Graysville Police Department
- City of Birmingham Department of Planning, Engineering & Permits