{"id":136842,"date":"2026-01-16T22:37:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T22:37:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/136842\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T22:37:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T22:37:10","slug":"los-al-police-department-to-soon-adopt-body-worn-cameras","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/136842\/","title":{"rendered":"Los Al Police Department to soon adopt body-worn cameras"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>A manufacturers photo of the new cameras the Los Alamitos Police Department will deploy after training is complete.
\nCourtesy photo<\/p>\n

The Los Al Police Department, the only municipal police department whose officers were heretofore not wearing body-worn video cameras, will join their law enforcement brethren in 2026 after the City Council approved a measure late in 2025 that will provide the financing for the project.<\/p>\n

In one of the Los Alamitos City Council\u2019s last meetings before the 2025 holiday break, they approved an agreement with Axon, a company police say is the nation\u2019s leading law enforcement technology providers, for approximately $350,000 to support the provision of body worn cameras for the city\u2019s police department for the next five years.<\/p>\n

According to Los Al Police Chief Michael Claborn, the implementation of a body-worn camera program for the department has been long-awaited and will now provide a new era of transparency and accountability for police, and for citizens who engage with officers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are the last remaining Police Department in Orange County that does not have body-worn cameras,\u201d Clayborn told the Council at the meeting, \u201cso I think the value of the cameras has been well established being that they\u2019ve been in our industry for so many years now for the ability to protect us against complaints for civil liability reasoning should we be involved in a shooting or major use of force.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both Claborn and City Manager Chet Simmons say the delay in acquiring the body-worn technology was by design.
Simmons said when he first arrived in Los Alamitos in 2020, and in his first conversations with Claborn in 2022, after he joined the city, \u201cthe chief was adamant that we were going to do body-worn cameras,\u201d said Simmons.<\/p>\n

\"\"Los Alamitos Police Chief Michael Claborn. File photo by Loreen Berlin<\/p>\n

Since then, he said the city has been busy updating its internet technologies and other support systems to service the bandwidth required to facilitate adding the system.<\/p>\n

In addition, Simmons said Claborn informed him about emerging technologies regarding seamless integration with the D.A.\u2019s office regarding video evidence and the city did not yet have the information technology infrastructure to support the high-tech cameras. With the current renovations, apparently, now they do.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe (Los Alamitos) now can tie into the O.C. District Attorney\u2019s Office with evidence, time-stamped and have them easily found,\u201d Simmons told the Council. \u201cThe evidence can be transmitted to the places we need to have them,\u201d the city manager said, noting that staff and the Police Department have been working since then to implement Claborn\u2019s plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Chief has provided a good system, and this (approval) is the final step in implementing that system,\u201d said Simmons.
Claborn confirmed that once fully implemented, the new system will be fully capable of \u201cseamlessly\u201d providing digital evidence to the D.A.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe utilization of body-worn cameras has been in effect for so long that now juries expect to see video on trials,\u201d said Claborn.<\/p>\n

Los Al Police Capt. Kain Gallaugher said the $344,000 contract represents five years of service at $68,000 per year. Axon will provide more than enough cameras for the department, including extras in case problems emerge with any officer\u2019s equipment.<\/p>\n

He said officers will update to Taser 10, the newest standard that most agencies now employ, and that the entire package comes with training models that let police administrators observe training to see how officers react under various circumstances. He said Los Al has used tasers since 2007, allowing officers to use \u201cless than lethal\u201d force.<\/p>\n

\u201cTasers have been incredibly useful nationwide and at our department,\u201d said Gallaugher. He said the city updated the tasers in 2012 and the contract with Axon will include the Taser 10, the latest models available in the U.S.<\/p>\n

Gallaugher said the virtual reality training modules that come with the police package will prove to be extremely valuable.
\u201cActually, putting officers in those real-life situations instead of just talking about it is a much better way to train our officers,\u201d said Gallaugher. All of the virtual training products come at no additional cost, he added.<\/p>\n

In addition, Gallaugher said the contract allows the city to be updated with new equipment at no charge for the first two and one-half years if the company updates the cameras and associated technology.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know with technology, updates happen very frequently, and Axon will actually upgrade us with whatever the latest technology is making sure that we\u2019re staying up to speed with the latest products,\u201d Gallaugher told the Council.<\/p>\n

Finally, Gallaugher explained to Mayor Tanya Doby how the cameras were insured, how they are activated, noting that the new body-worn cameras will automatically switch on in the event an officer gets into a scuffle before they have a chance to switch it on.<\/p>\n

In addition, Gallaugher said once the entire system is in operation, officers will have the option to review their videos for extra details when writing their reports.<\/p>\n

The police chief urged approval, saying the time is now or the cost will only go up.
\u201cNow is a good time to invest,\u201d Claborn told the Council, \u201cbecause with technology, the prices are just going to continue going up. This will get us locked in for five years with upgrades.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition, Claborn insisted that the new technology will save officers time and bring the city\u2019s police department up to industry standard.<\/p>\n

Body worn cameras \u201care the industry standard, not just the form for obvious transparency reasons, but also to make sure that we\u2019re filing good cases with the DA\u2019s office,\u201d said Claborn. He said the body-worn camera footage will not only be compatible with a new Axon portal to the D.A.\u2019s office, but will also comply with an existing service currently being used by the department.<\/p>\n

As an administrative issue, the Los Al police chief said city staff will have to develop a body-worn camera policy \u201cthat we do not have\u201d that will ultimately require Council approval.<\/p>\n

Given the fact that much of the city\u2019s infrastructure is already behind the project, that shouldn\u2019t turn out to be a problem, the city manager suggested.<\/p>\n

Los Alamitos Police Public Information Officer Robert Acosta has told ENE that city police are working on the policy while officers go through virtual training and other measures while the system is being readied for implementation.<\/p>\n

\u201cClearly,\u201d said Gallaugher, when you look at these numbers (cost) versus the potential of a lawsuit, because we don\u2019t have video backup, our officers observations as to why they use force seems like a wise investment,\u201d he said.
The Council voted unanimously to approve the expenditure on the body-worn camera ecosystem.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A manufacturers photo of the new cameras the Los Alamitos Police Department will deploy after training is complete.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":136843,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":{"0":"post-136842","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-long-beach","8":"tag-long-beach","9":"tag-long-beach-headlines","10":"tag-long-beach-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136842"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136842\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}