For all of us.

How it started

LEO Only officially began in 2014. It was started by Police Officer Craig Polen under tragic circumstances: in mid-2013, Craig’s best friend from high school, a fellow state trooper, died by suicide.

Craig had started the LEO Only Facebook page to keep in touch with fellow officers. After that loss, he opened it up as a place where law enforcement officers could talk about their emotions and share their experiences, and it grew into the organization we know today. From a membership of one, LEO Only has become a worldwide network of more than 36,500 law enforcement brothers and sisters.

Angels don’t always wear wings… some wear badges.

No child left without Christmas

We began by deciding who we were and what we wanted to accomplish. Our focus would be the children of slain or disabled officers, and we set out to raise the funds to make sure no child of a blue family in need would go without a Christmas.

In December 2013, before we had finished a full year of fundraising, LEO Only took 23 blue children Christmas shopping. In 2014 and 2015, another 138 children joined them, and since then we have touched the lives of 625 more. Our goal is to support every one of the children who have sacrificed so much.

Nominate a family for the Christmas Shopping Spree

Helping them reach college

As the children from those early years graduated from high school, a second need became clear: the rising cost of college. LEO Only awarded its first $10,000 scholarship in the fall of 2015, and the Scholarship Program is now a permanent part of our fundraising, guided by our members and our scholarship committee.

Learn about our scholarships

Beyond Christmas

We look for ways to better the lives of children in every part of life. In August 2015, LEO Only sponsored a therapy dog for a young autistic child in Georgia, giving him the emotional support he needed to attend school. We have also bought and donated countless adaptive bicycles for special-needs children who can’t ride the bikes found in most stores.

After the hurricane that devastated Puerto Rico in 2017, we worked with the Coast Guard Investigative Service (CGIS), local law enforcement and our members on the island to organize a shopping spree for the children affected by the storm. Every surviving toy on the island was staged at one store, and every affected child was bused there. Then something remarkable happened: instead of buying toys, many of the children asked if they could buy food, clothing and medical supplies for their families. That was when we realized our mission was so much greater.

We answered the call again after the California wildfires devastated so many of our blue families.

Always there for our own

LEO Only is there for our members in their time of need. We have helped many brothers and sisters in blue through moments of crisis, and we covered the funeral expenses of a fallen officer whose family could not afford them after a fiery off-duty crash.

LEO Only has been, and will continue to be, there for our family in blue.