Community Relations

Miguel Alvarez

Interim Chief of Police Miguel Alvarez is a lifelong resident of the City of San Luis, where he has served the community as a Police Explorer and Police Volunteer prior to becoming a Police Officer for the City of San Luis Police Department in 2006. Interim Chief Alvarez has served as a Yuma County Deputy Sheriff and prior to that as a Correctional Officer for the State of Arizona.

Interim Chief Alvarez’s education includes a master’s degree in Administration of Justice and Security with a Concentration in Law Enforcement Organizations and a Bachelor of Science in Human Services from University of Phoenix. He is a graduate of the Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training Board (AZPOST) Leadership Program (ALP) Session 19, the Northwestern University Center for Public Safety School of Police Staff and Command (SPSC) Session 441. Interim Chief Alvarez has completed the FBI Law Enforcement Executive Development Association’s leadership schools and has achieved the FBI-LEEDA Trilogy Award. Interim Chief Alvarez is additionally a certified performance auditor per LD Consulting.

Interim Chief Alvarez serves on several local committees involving crimes against children, child trafficking, domestic violence, and administration of justice education for high school and college students. He is Adjunct Faculty of the Administration of Justice program and is an instructor for the Law Enforcement Training Academy at Arizona Western College.

Marco Santana

Lieutenant Marco Santana was born in San Luis, Mexico and has been a resident of Yuma County since 1991. He has lived in the City of San Luis, Arizona since 2004, where he has served the community as a Police Officer for the San Luis Police Department since 2003.

Lieutenant Santana has served the San Luis Police Department in the following capacities: Patrol Officer, School Resource Officer, Field Training Officer, Motor Officer, Training Instructor and SWAT Officer. Lieutenant Santana is currently assigned as the Administrative Lieutenant overseeing the Communications Unit, Records Division, Quality Assurance and Professional Standards/Internal Affairs Unit. He has previously served the agency as a Support Services Lieutenant overseeing the Criminal Investigation Division, the department’s evidence room, the School Resource Officer’s Unit and the department’s community outreach program. He is the current police department’s Public Information Officer, which he has served in that role since 2013.

Lieutenant Santana’s education includes a Bachelor’s Degree in Criminal Justice from Northern Arizona University and an Associate of Arts in Administration of Justice Studies from Arizona Western College. He graduated from the Arizona Western College Law Enforcement Training Academy Class #24 in 2003. He is also a graduate of the Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training Board (AZPOST) Arizona Leadership Program (ALP) Session #23, and the Northwestern University Center for Public Safety School of Police Staff and Command (SPSC) Session #441. Lieutenant Santana has also successfully completed the FBI Law Enforcement Executive Development Association’s leadership schools, and as a result, he was awarded the prestigious FBI-LEEDA Trilogy Award.

Lieutenant Santana currently serves on several local committees that include the Yuma County Domestic Violence/Sexual Assault Task Force with Amberly’s Place, and the Yuma County Drugs & Delinquency Coalition. He serves an Adjunct Faculty Instructor at the Arizona Western College Law Enforcement Training Academy and has done so since 2013. As an instructor at the police academy he has taught traffic law, defensive driving and high risk vehicle stops. In January 2020, Lieutenant Santana joined the Arizona Western College Administration of Justice faculty and teaches (AJS) Administration of Justice courses as an Adjunct Professor.