Long Beach Police Department Body-Worn Camera Expansion Project

The purpose of the proposed project is to expand the City of Long Beach Police Department’s Body Worn Camera program to include non-sworn employees who have daily interactions with citizens in the field. This initiative involves the purchase of 123 body-worn cameras for the Department’s Special Services Officers and Community Services Assistants. The Department will provide end-user training to the non-sworn employees and deploy the body-worn cameras in the field. The service area of the program encompasses the City of Long Beach, California, which falls under the Department’s jurisdiction. The City of Long Beach is located within the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is the fifth largest metropolitan area in the western hemisphere and the second-largest metropolitan area in the United States, by population. The expected outcomes of the project include enhancing the safety of non-sworn employees and improving the Department’s community engagement efforts related to body worn cameras and associated digital evidence. The expected deliverables of this project include the deployment of 123 body-worn cameras to department personnel. Furthermore, this project will increase the Department’s capacity to document all eligible interactions between the community and Department non-sworn personnel. Extending the Body Worn Camera program to additional classifications that interact with the public will further enhance LBPD’s transparency and accountability, as well as de-escalate conflicts between police and community members. The intended beneficiaries of the project are the Department’s non-sworn employees, who will be equipped with the body-worn cameras and the Long Beach community at large. Furthermore, it is expected that the acquisition of the body-worn cameras will increase the volume of digital evidence available for sharing with other agencies, thereby promoting improvements in criminal justice outcomes, including officer, non-sworn employee, and citizen safety.