SEAL BEACH, CA — Seal Beach Police Chief Phil Gonshak has released his department’s 2022 vision statement, and it’s called “FOCUSED” — with each letter representing a department priority.
Police said the focus this year will be “on the community as a whole and how the SBPD will continue to focus on protecting the community of Seal Beach.”
Gonshak said his department looks forward to this year and thanked its members, Seal Beach City Council and City Manager Jill Ingram for their “continuing support and guidance.”
Ingram called the FOCUSED campaign a clear way to understand ministry priorities.
“An understanding, responsive and educated police force is what residents expect from their police department,” Ingram said. “It is evident that Chief Gonshak and every member of SBPD cares about this community and strives to provide services in a professional and compassionate manner.”
Each letter of the mission statement and its description can be found below, courtesy of the Seal Beach Police Department:
F: First on stage
The Seal Beach Police Department is committed to responding to every emergency call as quickly and safely as possible. We pride ourselves on having the fastest response times available. We will continue to help reduce response times by ensuring our officers are physically on the ground and on the streets as much as possible. We will achieve this by strategically placing our staff throughout the city when they are not responding to a call for service.
O: Opening
We are not naive to the fact that we do not know everything. We want to learn from the community how we can better serve our Seal Beach residents, businesses and visitors. We welcome all contributions from our community and encourage anyone with questions to send them to askacop@sealbeachca.gov or follow us on Instagram, Twitter and/or Facebook via @SealBeachPolice.
C: Customer/Community Service
Just like traditional businesses, we always focus on customer service. Also, in our case, we want to focus on BOTH our customers AND our community. This means that all Seal Beach Police Department personnel will be held to the highest standards. It is our promise to present ourselves with honor, integrity, professionalism, respect, and we will do all of this without bias.
U: Understand
In recent years we have seen national calls for police reform. While not everyone can agree on everything, we will strive, at a minimum, to understand different viewpoints, different cultures, and different life choices. In return, we hope that residents, businesses and visitors understand us.
S: School Safety
The safety of our children at JH McGaugh Elementary School will ALWAYS be one of our highest priorities. In 2022, we will hold a School Safety Town Hall and continue to work closely with Dr. Gates and his McGaugh team to ensure our students are safe while away from home. We will continue to attend monthly PTA meetings, we will attend quarterly Los Alamitos Unified School District task force meetings, and we will continue to recruit campus police officers when they are available. Finally, we will conduct realistic emergency drills on school grounds, to ensure that staff and students know what to do when a public safety emergency response is needed on campus.
E: Education
We believe in increasing our level of education for all Seal Beach Police Department personnel. This includes encouraging personnel to continue their formal training, in addition to regularly sending all personnel to a variety of professional development courses and law enforcement-based specialties, such as de-escalation training. force, training on best police practices, the latest case law, police tactics, and policies and procedures.
D: Reduce crime and improve the quality of life for all residents, businesses and visitors
This is our mission statement, and we live by it every day. Reducing crime and making people feel safe in this community is the driving principle behind all our actions and decisions.
Last year’s Seal Beach Policing campaign was titled “CARES”, with the department focusing on how to “continue(d) care for the community of Seal Beach”.
