The Seaside Police Department re-envisions its lobby—in the style of a spa.

Sara Rubin here, as surprised as anyone to have found a police department lobby to be an oddly pleasant place. To be fair, my expectations are low—law enforcement agencies are not known for their aesthetic choices, and besides, there are security needs to comply with. This means interactions with people there are through glass. 

Some of this is for safety reasons, but it doesn’t have to be this way. And Seaside Police Chief Nick Borges is invested in making the design of SSPD’s lobby reflect the policing principles he aims to implement throughout this department, namely a spirit of service. 

“We want to shift traditional policing into a welcoming environment,” Borges says. “I want them to feel like, this is where I go to for help, just like you go to a doctor.”

Of course there’s more to that kind of culture shift than a lobby redesign—it has to do with how officers are trained and empowered to interact with the public out in the community. (To bolster that, a sign that officers see as they leave the building reads, “Never miss an opportunity to positively change someone’s life.”)

But Borges thinks that the lobby can really matter. He’s observed people, often there to report a crime, or get information on an investigation—almost always in the building for an unpleasant reason—waiting to talk to an officer and getting more agitated while they do. What if instead of increasing agitation, design elements made people calmer? 

The new (2020) Salinas Police Department headquarters on East Alisal Street incorporated the idea that physical space can really matter to the way the public understands the function of policing. The lobby and community room are inviting spaces with natural light, not traditional, cold police-style features. It’s called Police Services not just in name, but in function, and serves as an anchor to the longer-term Alisal Vibrancy Plan, which aims to improve a whole neighborhood. 

Working with Seaside’s police station is a little tougher, given that the basement-level entry feels like going into a dungeon. Borges budgeted up to $3,000 for improvements to the physical space, with a selection of items he says are inspired by spa settings. Improvements are about 75-percent done, with new light wood paneling on the walls, wood benches, potted plants and the water feature. Coming soon, he says, is iced cucumber water, something that the records team can offer to people while they wait. 

“We want people to be treated at this high level of professionalism,” Borges says. He hopes that it goes a long way toward solidifying a shift in how the police relate to the community and vice versa, upending an “us-versus-them” framing, but framing the department as an agency that is there to serve. 

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Going to the spa, in a police station. Concept car destroyed after leaving Pebble Beach.