Politics & Government

Merger of Seal Beach, Los Alamitos and Cypress Police Departments Unlikely

City leaders met Monday to discuss a police merger, but Seal Beach officials remain steadfastly opposed.

Talk of merging the Seal Beach, Los Alamitos and Cypress police departments is unlikely to progress beyond talk for now.

Officials from all three cities gathered to discuss the merger over lunch Monday, and the message from Seal Beach officials was clear. “We’re not going to join up with those two cities,” said Seal Beach Mayor Mike Levitt.

The meeting, initiated by Los Alamitos officials, was triggered by efforts to cut costs by combining departments. From Seal Beach, Levitt attended with Acting City Manager Jill Ingram and Councilman Gary Miller. From Los Alamitos, City Councilman Troy Edgar attended with City Manager Jeff Stewart.

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Seal Beach officials attended the meeting at the invitation of Los Alamitos officials in order to hear out the proposal, but that doesn’t mean that the city leaders have any interest in merging police departments, said Ingram.

“While our elected officials and city staff are fortunate to enjoy collaborative working relationships with our neighbors in Los Alamitos and Cypress, we strongly desire for city services to remain local, in our city, with our elected officials, with our staff, with our police department, and to maintain Seal Beach with its own community identity that it has enjoyed for the past 95 years,” added Ingram. “As far as I am concerned, this discussion is closed…”

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While Seal Beach officials were clear about their objections, the meeting was productive in starting a dialogue about being able to provide cost-effective services, Edgar said.

“I think the community expects us as leaders to bring potential solutions for cost effective services,” he said. “Do you need three chiefs and multiple levels of captains and higher (ranking) officers?”

Residents wouldn’t have to sacrifice any level of service, and all three cities could save money by merging and eliminating duplicate positions at the top, added Edgar.

One concern for Seal Beach officials would be the unique policing needs of the beach, and for Cypress, which has the largest of the three police departments, officials would want to make sure the city gets its money’s worth for providing the lion’s share of the budget, said Edgar.

However, without data-driven analyses, any discussion about merging the departments is just talk, said Edgar.

The important thing to take away from Monday’s meeting is that representatives from all three communities showed leadership by being willing to discuss ways that the city could save money without sacrificing service, he added.

While a merger might seem like a natural progression from the West Cities Police Communications Center that serves Seal Beach, Los Alamitos and Cypress along with the West County SWAT Team, any talk of merging the police department is bound to be a sensitive discussion, added Edgar.

No one wants to give up local control as would be the case if the city contracted with the sheriff’s department, but an arrangement similar to the city’s contract with the Orange County Fire Authority for fire services could allow cities to maintain local control while saving money, said Edgar.

However, city officials are far from a consensus on whether a merger could work for all three communities, added Edgar.

For now, “There is no agenda to immediately merge police forces,” he said.


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