Seal Beach Police Unveil 2022 'FOCUSED' Vision Statement

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 standing for a department priority.

Police said their emphasis this year will be "on the community as a whole, and how the SBPD will continue to be FOCUSED on protecting the Seal Beach community."

Gonshak said his department is looking forward to this year and thanked its members, the Seal Beach City Council, and City Manager Jill Ingram for their "continued support and guidance."

Ingram called the FOCUSED campaign a clear way of understanding the department's priorities.

"An understanding, fast responding, and educated police force are what residents want of their police department," Ingram said. "It is evident that Chief Gonshak and every member of the SBPD cares for this community and strives to deliver 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 Scene
The Seal Beach Police Department is dedicated to responding to every emergency call for service as fast and as safe as possible. We pride ourselves on having the fastest response times available. We will continue to help reduce response times by ensuring our police officers are physically in the field and on the streets as much as possible. We will do this by strategically placing our staff throughout the city when not tending to a call for service.

O: Openness
We are not naïve to the fact that we do not know everything. We want to learn from the community on how we can better serve our residents, businesses, and visitors of Seal Beach. We appreciate all our community's input 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
Much like traditional businesses, our focus is always on customer service. Moreover, in our case we want to focus on BOTH our customers and our community. This means all Seal Beach Police Department staff will be held to the highest of standards. It is our promise to present ourselves with honor, integrity, professionalism, respect, and we will do all of this without bias.

U: Understanding
Over the past few years, we've seen nationwide calls for police reform. Although not everyone will be able to agree on everything, we will strive to, at a minimum, understand different points of view, different cultures, and different life choices. In return, it is our hope residents, businesses and visitors understand us.

S: School Safety
The safety of our children at J.H. McGaugh Elementary School will ALWAYS be one of our highest priorities. In 2022, we will be holding a town hall meeting on school safety and will continue to work closely with Dr. Gates and his McGaugh Staff to ensure our students are kept safe when they are away from home. We will continue to attend monthly PTA meetings, will attend quarterly Los Alamitos Unified School District Working Group meetings, and will continue to staff police officers on campus when available. Lastly, we will be conducting realistic emergency drills on school grounds, to ensure staff and students know what to do when an emergency public safety 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 staff to continue their formal education, in addition to regularly sending all staff to a variety of law enforcement based professional development and specialty classes such as deescalation of force training, training on policing best practices, latest case law, police tactics, and policies and procedures.

D: Drive Down Crime and Improve the Quality of Life for All Residents, Businesses, and Visitors
This is our mission statement, and we stand by it every day. Reducing crime and making people feel safe and secure in this community is the driving principle behind all of our actions and decisions.

Last year's Seal Beach police campaign was titled "CARES," with the department focusing on how "continue(d) to CARE for the Seal Beach community."