It was not so easy for Seal Beach Police Chief Michael Henderson to finish his lunch at the newly reopened Walt’s Wharf on Main Street last week, yet in truth, that’s exactly the way he wanted it.
Henderson has launched “Lunch with the Chief,” a new initiative that is intended to make the city’s police chief available to everyday citizens, allowing them to talk to him personally about how things are going within the city’s law enforcement community.
“There’s no agenda and no RSVP required,” said Henderson, who added that Walt’s Wharf was his first stop on the upcoming listening tour.
His first outing this past week started slowly, but almost as soon as the chief began to eat, citizens noticed he was sitting at a table with his back to Central Ave., while others walked in throughout the hour to say hello to the chief.
Henderson credited the idea to a member of his staff.
“It was actually an idea that came from one of my Captains. He had gone to a training school, and an agency in another state had done this, and I liked the simplicity of the idea to just go have lunch, make myself available to whomever wants to come and ask me a question about their police department,” said Henderson during the lunch interview.
“We’re committed to transparency. We’re committed to community policing and being open and available to those who might have a question about the police department. That’s what community policing is all about,” he said.
“I have to eat lunch anyway, so why not talk to some people who may have questions about what we do and how we do it,” he said.
Chad Berlinghieri, president of the Seal Beach City Rotary Club, was one of those who popped in to remind Henderson how much the people of Seal Beach loved its PD.
“I think it’s important for the leadership in our community to not only be visible, but approachable with any concerns that people have,” the Rotary president said.
“Chief Henderson has always been that person,” said Berlinghieri. “He’s always been very accessible and attends all of our Rotary meetings, and if there are any concerns we have, he’s always there,” the Rotary Club President said.
In addition to Berlinghieri, Zack Jauregui, a staffer for State Sen. Tony Strickland, stopped by to deliver goodwill wishes from the Senator as other citizens began to trickle in.
Lynette Van Voris and her daughter, Alexandra, were among the everyday citizens who stopped in to say hello to the chief, saying they respect the police department so much that they sometimes volunteer for citizen duty on the Citizens Emergency Response Team.
“My gosh, we’ve never lived in a city where we have loved our police department so much and felt so well taken care of as we do in Seal Beach,” said Lynette.
“This is a beautiful community, and we think Chief Henderson is a big reason we feel so safe,” she said.
Henderson says he understands this community, and although it is a small department, it focuses on the issues that local residents care about.
“In Seal Beach, many of the questions and many of the concerns that we’ll be dealing with are quality of life issues,” said Henderson.
Moreover, he said homelessness is definitely a topic of conversation, but what people have a hard time understanding is that unless a vagrant has broken the law, police options are “limited.”
“Homelessness is a significant challenge,” the police chief said.
“And where I would start is that homelessness is a complex societal issue. The challenge for us is that it often falls to law enforcement to address it directly, and we do. We do a lot of outreaches at Seal Beach. We have specially trained officers who learn how to engage with the homeless community, recognize mental illness, and be able to connect them with social services,” said Henderson.
“The big challenge is,” said Henderson, “that many people are experiencing homelessness. They don’t always want to accept social services. They don’t always want to be, you know, given something. It’s hard to believe sometimes, but they’re satisfied where they are at that moment, and if they’re not breaking the law, then we’re limited in what we can do. That’s where our line stops,” he added.
Looking to more traditional issues, the police chief says his department seeks to make a difference on issues that matter most for the people of Seal Beach.
“We’re a beach community, so we are always working to manage and improve our parking and parking enforcement. We’ve dealt with some theft and shoplifting issues, especially in the northern part of the city, with some of the major retailers. So those are definitely topics of conversation,” said Henderson.
“Traffic and traffic issues is something that’s always in the forefront for us, so we address all those regularly. Those are things that we are always working to improve upon,” he noted.
The main difference in policing in Seal Beach and a major city is that “we can be responsive to everyone.” The beauty of Seal Beach is I can talk directly to people who you know, say, Hey, this is my concern, but it also gives me an opportunity to talk to them about what we can do,” he said.
“We do have limitations as a law enforcement agency, so we try to address all the problems as best we can and really be personal and get to know the people that live in our community,” said Henderson, thus the impetus behind the “Lunch with the Chief” program.
“I want to make myself available to the community. I’m everyone’s Chief of Police. We’re a law enforcement agency, we’re nonpartisan, and we’re here for everyone, but again, in a small city, in a smaller department, I can do that, and we’re fully committed to engaging with our community,” he said.
“I don’t want it to be where I’m sitting behind my desk all day. I also want to hear what the issues are, and sometimes you need to hear them from the people that are experiencing them, to really get a full understanding of what the issues really are,” said Henderson.
“I’m not sure where we’re headed next month, but I’ll be ready to listen,” he said, sitting down to enjoy the rest of his lunch.
