Santa Ana officials are directing city staff to research what it will cost and the benefits of installing dashboard cameras on over 50 city police cars.
The request comes in a city that has recently been plagued by a host of police accountability questions during a time when city leaders are also bracing for an expected $30 million budget deficit in a couple years and the police union is one of the biggest spends on local elections.
Last week, city council members tasked staff with looking into the price of the cameras, their benefits and how the city would go about implementing and rolling out the cameras.
Staff are expected to come back in January to share their findings.
City Councilwoman Jessie Lopez proposed the move, arguing that dashboard cameras can reduce lawsuits and provide more accountability.
[Read: Will Santa Ana Require Automatic Dash Cam Recording For Police Chases?]
“I think that it can be beneficial to our city,” said Lopez – who previously faced an unsuccessful recall election backed by the police union – at the Oct. 7 meeting which she joined through teleconference from Dallas.
Santa Ana Councilwoman Jessie Lopez addresses attendees at the June 17, 2025, Santa Ana City Council meeting alongside Councilmembers Benjamin Vazquez and Johnathan Hernandez, as Councilwoman Thai Viet Phan looks on from the left, after a woman is handcuffed on the floor inside the city chambers by several police officers. Credit: JULIE LEOPO, Voice of OC
Councilman Phil Bacerra – whose 2022 council campaign was heavily supported by the union – opposed Lopez’s proposal, calling it a redundant item.
“We already have body worn cameras on our officers. If there is, for some reason, a belief that the cameras are not being turned on in time, or there’s some sort of problem with the policy regarding the existing infrastructure, then perhaps we should kick that down to our police oversight commission and let them provide their input for us to consider,” Bacerra said at the meeting.
His remarks come after elected officials have faced pushback from activists for considering an ordinance that they say would essentially gut the police oversight commission’s authority to hold officers accountable.
[Read: Will Santa Ana Neuter its Police Oversight Commission Before its Work Begins?]
Bacerra said it would be better for the city to surveil criminal activity and deploy cameras along First Street and the Union Pacific Railroad.
“If there’s going to be a discussion about allocating resources for cameras, my advice would be looking at actually surveilling criminals,” he said. “Our officers already have cameras.”
In June, city officials approved allocating about $161 million or 38% of the general fund budget – the biggest portion of their discretionary money – to the police department in what they described as Santa Ana’s last big budget for a while.
Councilman Johnathan Hernandez said the cameras could help build transparency, accountability, collect evidence and prevent costly litigation.
“There’s a number of public lawsuits that we’ve had to pay out over the course of my career here,” he said at the meeting. “This also decreases the number of complaints and allegations of misconduct by having a very clear record of transport.”
At the meeting, a majority of Santa Ana City Council members voted to launch a formal investigation into separate complaints by three police officers alleging they were harassed by Hernandez – a vocal police union critic.
[Read: Santa Ana Launches Probe into Police Union Critic After Cops’ Complaints]
The police union spent over $50,000 against Hernandez’s reelection campaign last year.
A Santa Ana Police vehicle outside of City Hall on July 16, 2024. Credit: ERIKA TAYLOR, Voice of OC
Councilman Ben Vazquez said cameras help build the public trust.
“It also not only protects the public, it protects the police from false accusations,” he said.
Vazquez has recently come under fire from Bacerra and the police union after he called on the state attorney general to probe the union’s spending after a controversial audit sparked questions as to whether Santa Ana officials are spending too much or too little to insure cops.
[Read: Is Santa Ana Overpaying or Underpaying For Local Police Officers’ Health Insurance?]
The police union spent over $70,000 opposing Vazquez’s failed mayoral campaign against the police union-backed Mayor Valerie Amezcua.
Councilwoman Thai Viet Phan said she wants to see more information come back on the dash cams.
“So many times when a body is so close, you might not see everything, I think it can either exonerate activity, or it can ensure that we fix any shortcomings,” she said.
Amezcua concurred with Phan.
“I agree that body-worn cameras have been good for the community. They’ve also been great for law enforcement, because if they do something good, we see it. If they do something bad, we also see that,” she said.
Santa Ana police officers currently use body-worn cameras and are required to turn them on when responding to calls with some exceptions including encounters with confidential informants.
Other law enforcement agencies, like the Los Angeles Police Department and the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, have implemented similar dash cam requirements with the latter requiring automatic in-car video recording when the overhead police lights are turned on.
Amezcua also questioned where the funding for the cameras would come from and said it shouldn’t come from the police’s budget.
“If we keep pulling money – or that’s the recommendation up here by a couple council members is ‘well, just take it from that pot.’ Well, if you keep taking it from that pot, eventually that pot is going to be empty,” she said.
Hosam Elattar is a Voice of OC reporter. Contact him at helattar@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @ElattarHosam.
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