Shrimp Kebabs with Redondo Beach Chief of Police Keith Kauffman—September 28, 2016 Luncheon

Posted by Andrea Mosmann

(REDONDO BEACH, California) September 28, 2016—At today’s luncheon, we heard from Redondo Beach Chief of Police Keith Kauffman.

Announcements:

Vicki Radel announced that the Redondo Beach Rotary Club has received a certificate of recognition from the Mayor of Los Angeles for our outreach to the downtown homeless, PCI, and Mama Hill’s Help.

Vicki invited all members who have participated in the program to come to the podium for a group photo.

Terry Bichlmeier told us that the Amazon Smile Foundation would support our community service efforts if individuals would please register under the “Redondo Beach Rotary Club Community Foundation” when shopping at amazon.com.


Andrea Mosmann (above left) and Vera Jimenez exchanged their red badges for permanent badges.

Amy Zimmerman asked if anyone was able to host our exchange student, Shogo Oseogawa, October 10-11 and/or February 25 to the end of May.

Scott Young asked if anyone was able to store the boat currently in his garage. Amy Zimmerman and Nora Giralt volunteered.

Camp Pendleton donations, cash or gift cards, can be brought to the October 11^th District Breakfast, or Alexis can take them for you if you give them to her.

Eli Gauna reminded us that the Rotary Foundation requested that the club donate $2650 in honor of the centennial. We have greatly exceeded that amount. In fact, Jim Chen donated $2650 himself! Also, be sure to turn in the raffle tickets that you sold in support of the October 22 Foundation Celebration aboard the Battleship USS Iowa.

Amy Zimmerman and George Schane will take donations of clothes and toiletries to the downtown homeless. See them to donate or to learn about carpooling to the next event.

Guests were Athena Marano, and Tom Tryon.

The Flag Salute was led by Rick Wendorff. The Inspiration inspired by Autumn was given by Vera Jimenez. Our greeters for the day were Faisal Hashmi and Robert Baker. Meals on Wheels were delivered by George Schane and Jim Stickler.

Jim Sheehy introduced our luncheon guest, Redondo Beach Chief of Police Keith Kauffman.

KEITH KAUFFMAN has been a police officer since 1994 for the City of Hawthorne. His experience encompasses an array of assignments including patrol, gangs, narcotics, SWAT and more. He has served as a team-member and commander and is a two-time “Medal of Valor” recipient. He achieved the rank of Captain in 2008 and began working on the Coffee with a Cop program in 2011. Chief Kauffman holds a BA Degree from UCLA in Spanish Literature/Linguistics and an MS Degree from CSDHU in Negotiations/Conflict Management. He is also the 2014 graduate of the California POST Command College,

Class 55, and winner of the Dorothy Harris Award for his published journal article. Chief Kauffman was selected as the new Chief of Police for the Redondo Beach Police Department, CA in October of 2015.

Upon becoming Chief of the Redondo Beach Police Department, Chief Kauffman decided not to make any changes during the first 90 days. He reasoned that he didn’t need to throw his weight around; after all, successful change comes from the bottom up. He did, however, make suggestions. Today he shared two stories from his time with the Redondo Beach Police Department.

One day Chief Kauffman met a man from Canine Companions for Independence who trained service dogs. This man told the Chief that some dogs don’t pass muster for their purposes, but would make excellent police dogs for sniffing out drugs or for search and rescue missions. The Chief soon adopted Scotty for the Hawthorne Police Department, and the dog proved to be amazing with kids, victims, police officers, and others.

After moving to the Redondo Beach Police Department, Chief Kauffman invited Scotty to come for a visit. The officers saw how great Scotty was with people, and they wondered about getting a dog for the Redondo Beach Department. Ultimately, a call was made to adopt a dog. Inadvertently, Chief Kauffman got to hear voicemail left for the dog trainer from Canine Companions for Independence. The voicemail was from a Redondo Beach police officer, and it contained some less than flattering comments about Chief Kauffman. After some days had passed, the Chief called the officer into his office and told him that if that officer was afraid of a change as small as a dog in the department, he should just wait and see what big changes were coming in his community.

On another occasion, Chief Kauffman received a text containing a photo of a Redondo Beach police officer, in uniform, doing a trick on a skateboard. The photo had appeared on Instagram and had received about 300 comments, 280 of which were positive. After careful consideration, the Chief concluded that overall, the picture was a good thing. The comments, after all, were positive. Imagine if the police officer had been photographed giving a ticket to skateboarding kids instead. The comments would have been very negative.

When a police officer was killed in Downey, Chief Kauffman suggested that the Redondo Beach Police Department reach out to the Downey Police Department in some way. Some officers thought of catering the Downey PD for a day. So they called upon the person who posted photo of the skateboarding officer on Instagram—Wee Man, a local celebrity and restaurant owner who, incidentally, has over half a million followers on Instagram. As it turned out, the risk taken by one police officer paid off with the community.

Both of these stories exemplify the Redondo Beach Police Department’s vision: “We are the community leading the way in law enforcement.”