Saying Goodbye to the Beach

Hermosa Beach Police Chief Val Straser wears Hawaiian shirts to department meetings and waxes philosophical on metaphysics and the universe’s natural musical key of C.

Neighboring Redondo Beach’s police chief, Mel Nichols, is a straight arrow with a penchant for brown suits who frequently spends his lunch hour delivering Meals on Wheels through the local Rotary Club.

Much to the dismay of residents in both communities, the two South Bay chiefs announced plans last week to retire this year.

The search is already on for their successors. Unlike their counterparts in Los Angeles and other neighboring cities, future beach chiefs will face little gang violence and only the rare, highly publicized homicide.

Instead, they will contend with illegal taxis, drug dealers at schools and rowdy beach revelers. Straser and Nichols say the greatest challenges facing their successors will be fighting the growing number of methamphetamine labs in the South Bay and keeping up with the latest law enforcement technology.

Residents say finding suitable replacements won’t be easy. Although previous chiefs in both towns had been perceived by some residents as having an “us versus them” mentality, Nichols and Straser have been praised for the steps they took to build trust in their communities.

Straser, 55, said he plans to retire in April. Nichols, 60, will retire in December. Both said that, after long careers in law enforcement, it is time to step down.

In some ways, the two have come to personify the towns they protect.

Straser’s philosophic bent and mellow style fit well with Hermosa’s image as the most bohemian of the South Bay beach cities.

Straser “enormously improved the relationship between the community and the officers. It’s the best it’s been in 30 years,” said Kevin Cody, editor and publisher of the Easy Reader, a local paper.

Once known for its jazz clubs and later for its biker scene, Hermosa Beach, with a population just over 18,000, has become increasingly family-oriented. But its funky stores and oceanfront bars remain popular with young singles, along with its beach volleyball competitions. Straser, on the force for 27 years and its chief since 1993, calls himself a paradox. “People expect me to pull their heads off, and I recite poetry to them,” he said.

“He’s not the type that insists that your uniforms be creased just so, or your boots shined so you can see them,” said deputy city clerk and longtime Hermosa resident Naoma Valdes.

Asked about regrets, Straser said he wishes he could have assigned his 35 officers such readings as Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar” and perhaps a little Ayn Rand and Karl Marx for good measure.

“Officers need to have a broader sense of scope in order to understand what’s going on around them,” he said.

“We’re one of the only professions in society where we’re allowed to take a human life. That’s a great responsibility, and we don’t handle it very well,” he added.

Straser moved up from within the ranks, seeing the city soften its edges with the influx of employees from South Bay movie studios and Internet companies.

‘It’s About Yin and the Yang’

But he still had to gain the town’s confidence. During the early 1970s, party goers and officers clashed at several Fourth of July celebrations. In response, police set up roadblocks one year and admitted only those who could prove they lived in Hermosa Beach.

Straser allowed the parties to continue while increasing the police presence and working to ease tensions between officers and revelers. Occasionally this softer approach has angered residents who would like to see fewer bars in the city.

“It’s about yin and the yang,” Straser said. “On the one hand, you have citizens’ rights to have peace and quiet, and on the other side it’s become a ritual rite of passage. . . . Most societies have it.”

More recently, he has cracked down on illegal taxicabs that were taking advantage of visitors and residents frustrated by the city’s limited parking.

Straser said he is most proud of the department’s success in solving the highly publicized murder of former Raider cheerleader Linda Sobek. She disappeared Nov. 16, 1995. Nine days later photographer Charles Rathbun led police to her shallow grave in the Angeles National Forest. He was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison.

Nichols joined the Redondo Beach Police Department in 1993 as its chief after 30 years with the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department. Residents say his honesty and professionalism won them over.

Redondo Beach Chamber of Commerce President Marna Smeltzer described him as serious and down to earth, with a wry sense of humor that sometimes comes as a surprise. In some ways, she added, that would describe Redondo Beach.

Nichols’ professionalism has served him well in dealing with the complexities of the city’s ethnically and economically diverse community.

“I have always looked at Mel as a role model of how to treat people with respect, even if you disagree with them,” said Mayor Gregory Hill.

The city’s 65,000 residents live in a mix of million-dollar beachfront homes, condos and modest tract houses. With fewer bars and trendy shops than Hermosa and Manhattan Beach to its north, Redondo Beach tends to be more buttoned down. Still, Redondo is where some say California surfing was born. It has its own sense of fun, with a small amusement arcade, a marine science center, boutiques and the giant sea mural painted on the back of the city’s centerpiece, the old Edison power plant.

Nichols said he took the job as chief of Redondo’s 109-member force to get back to the ground level of law enforcement.

It is those basic operations that he remembers with the most pride. In 1995, he initiated an undercover operation at Redondo Union High School, arresting 17 suspected drug dealers. As chief, he stationed police officers at both the junior high and high schools and worked closely with the Board of Education to reduce truancy and teen drug abuse.

Crackdown on Fencing Praised

“It’s been a great feeling as a school superintendent to know I can pick up the phone and call Mel directly, and he’s going to pick up. That’s not something you get in some larger cities,” said schools Supt. Bill Nunan.

Nichols will also be remembered for his 1997 crackdown on stolen property. He masterminded the 10-month Operation Bull Market, during which police arrested 100 people involved in fencing stolen goods and recovered $4.3 million in items, mostly car parts. Then-Gov. Pete Wilson called the project the most successful of its kind in state history.

Ultimately, Nichols said the best part of his job has been working with the community. “People generally like the police here,” he said. “When they wave to you here, it’s with all five fingers.”