As we reflect over the past four decades, we are reminded of the early beginnings, when the Albuquerque Police Volunteer Chaplain Unit grew from a proposal by a local minister, the Reverend Virgil Bonto. Reverend Bonto approached then Chief of Police Paul A. Shaver and shared the vision of having a chaplain unit for the police department.
On March 10, 1969, Chief Shaver appointed the Reverend John A. "Jack" Price as the first Chaplain Commander to oversee 35 ministers and a motor vehicle donated by a local automobile agency. In 1998, the Albuquerque Law Enforcement Building was named after Commander Price.