For the officers of the Seal Beach Police Department’s Community Oriented Policing Team, relationships in this community are measured in far more than calls for service. They’re measured in years, memories, and milestones.
In 2019, Officer Victor Ruiz and Officer Bruno Balderrama made up the original Seal Beach Police Department COP Team established after the passage of Measure BB. Together, they became familiar faces throughout the community—patrolling the beaches and downtown business district, assisting with homeless outreach efforts, and serving as liaisons to McGaugh Elementary School.
That same year, Ruiz and Balderrama stood alongside a preschool class from the McGaugh campus of the Los Alamitos Unified School District’s Child Development Center for a photo celebrating the children’s next big step: Becoming future McGaugh Sea Lions.
At the time, it was simply a special community moment. Six years later, it became something much more meaningful.
That same preschool class is now a towering group of fifth-graders preparing to graduate from McGaugh Elementary School and move on to either McAuliffe or Oak Middle School in Los Alamitos. As part of their graduation activities, the students’ parents reached out to the Seal Beach Police Department with a simple request—could two officers help to recreate the photo from 2019?
What the students may not have realized was that Ruiz and Balderrama not only remembered taking the original picture but immediately jumped at the opportunity to stand beside the students once again
While both officers have since moved on from the COP Team assignment, their connection to the community has remained strong. Officer Ruiz became the department’s canine handler in 2021 alongside his partner, Police Dog Saurus, helping reestablish the Seal Beach Police Department’s canine program for the first time in nearly four decades.
Cpl. Balderrama has since been promoted and now serves as a watch commander and acting sergeant, helping supervise patrol operations throughout the city. He is also an integral member of the Honor Guard Team and serves as the lead advisor for the department’s Explorer Post.
For the students, the recreated photo represents six years of growing up in a city where police officers are more than uniforms—they are mentors, supporters, and trusted members of the community. For the officers, it was a reminder of the unique privilege that comes with policing in a small town where they are able to watch children grow from preschoolers into young adults ready for middle school.
The partnership between the SBPD and McGaugh Elementary continues to be one built on trust, visibility, and genuine connection – the kind of relationship that helps make Seal Beach so special.
As the McGaugh Class of 2026 prepares to leave elementary school behind, the SBPD congratulated each and every graduate on this exciting milestone.
If Officer Ruiz and Cpt. Balderrama have anything to say about it, this won’t be the last recreation photo—they’ll proudly join these students for eighth-grade promotion, high school graduation, and every big milestone still to come.
