MISSION VIEJO : Sheriff Station in Mall ‘Sells’ Goodwill

As Paige Wendland, 5, walked with her mother through the Mission Viejo Mall on Wednesday, she recognized a deputy who had been to her school through a storefront window and wanted to go in.

“My dad doesn’t wear his seat belt,” she reported to Sheriff’s Deputy Teresa Gibbs.

That kind of community contact--more or less--is the purpose of the new storefront substation of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department. It is a public information booth, an office station where deputies can accomplish some desk work and, they hope, a station where the public will report crimes.

“We want people to walk in and feel comfortable,” Gibbs said. “Our goal is to be a direct line of communication between law enforcement and the public.”

More than 60 people a day have been coming into the station with questions since it opened just before Christmas. Some pick up pamphlets or examine the mock drugs and paraphernalia.

“Mostly, people are coming in just to find out what we’re all about,” Deputy Paul Harnett said. “As time goes on, people will walk in to report crimes, and we can take a report right here at the counter.”

Shoppers can stop in from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday to have their children fingerprinted, register their bicycles or get information on city services.

“I was walking by and saw the line for fingerprinting,” said Cindy Riedlinger, 33, of Laguna Niguel. “No matter where you live, you always hear about children being taken.”

When Gibbs explained that footprints work better than fingerprints for children, the parents pulled off their children’s socks.

Rob Jacobson, 29, of Laguna Niguel said, “It’s something good to have on file; you can never be too safe.”

Paige’s mother, Sandy Wendland, 31, of Mission Viejo, said she came in because she was curious.

“I wanted to know why they would put this type of thing in the mall,” she said.

The Mission Viejo Mall donated the 2,000-square-foot storefront to the Sheriff’s Department because “we saw this as a positive customer service,” said Linda Jones, general manager of the mall. “We have a lot of kids who use the mall as an entertainment center. If any of them should happen to go in there and receive information that makes them even think about not using drugs, we’ve done a tremendous thing.

“It also gives us the presence of law enforcement. We have a very safe center, but it makes everyone feel even safer to have a deputy right here.”

While other Orange County shopping centers, such as South Coast Plaza, have sheriff’s substations off back hallways, the storefront station is unique, Jones said.

In addition to Gibbs and Deputy Doug Bertoglio, who operate the station, volunteers from the Seniors’ Community Activity Team help staff it. The team is a city program that trains senior citizens to monitor Mission Viejo for graffiti and illegal signs, check the homes of shut-ins or people on vacation, and conduct neighborhood watch programs. The volunteers are uniformed and well-versed about city services.