by Garth Meyer
The new Redondo Beach police chief is in place, two weeks in, a second-generation RBPD officer, with two brothers who also work in public service.
Stephen Sprengel joined the RBPD in 2002 after three years with the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department. He began as the Redondo chief Dec. 27, following the retirement of Joe Hoffman.
“We hit the ground running. It’s been good,” Sprengel said. “Chief Hoffman left a good foundation, and it’s nice to build on that.”
Sprengel’s father worked for 30 years as a Redondo officer. Stephen and his brothers grew up in the South Bay and went to local schools.
Sprengel has a master’s degree in Law Enforcement and Public Safety Leadership from the University of San Diego, and a bachelor’s in Criminal Justice. Before working in law enforcement, he owned and operated a general contracting business.
So the new chief will have an opinion on the new Redondo police station to be built?
“Hey, that’s way different than what I was doing,” Sprengel said, of his time in residential construction.
He made a lateral move to the RBPD 23 years ago, his first assignment on the night shift as a D.U.I. officer.
The department had 108 officers then, now it is 98; a number Chief Hoffman worked toward in his almost four years in the top job. Hoffman hired 60 new RBPD officers. His predecessor, Keith Kauffman, began to offer initial testing every 3-4 months to bring in new recruits.
Sprengel and Kauffman knew each other as kids, both of their fathers RBPD officers.
The new chief’s previous roles in the RBPD included field training officer, sergeant assignments in the Motor, Patrol and Professional Standards Units, lieutenant watch commander and D.U.I. instructor. He worked as a motor officer and sergeant for six years.
“I really enjoyed traffic enforcement, riding the motorcycle,” he said.
He “absolutely loved” being a field-training officer for nine years.
“I really enjoyed patrol. Building a team atmosphere. Every level really helped me professionally, and to grow, too,” Sprengel said.
For the last four years, he has been a captain, overseeing each of three bureaus; special operations, patrol and support services.
“Technology is definitely helping us,” Sprengel said. “One of the best things we’ve done here is body-worn cameras. Following that is our drone program. The latest is Peregrine (data management platform), which allows us to see all of our databases in one search.”
Artificial intelligence?
“We’re doing some testing now with report writing. We’re not sure where that will end up,” he said.
Any concerns within the department as is?
“No specific concerns at this point,” Sprengel said.
He will be formally sworn at the Jan. 20 city council meeting. ER
