The Inglewood City Council on Tuesday approved a more than $6 million package of public safety upgrades, including body-worn cameras for police officers.
The funding package adopted by the council also includes measures for the police department such as automated license plate readers, drones, in-car video systems and a digital evidence-management system.
“As the city prepares to support major international and national events, including the FIFA World Cup 2026, Super Bowl 2027, and the 2028 Summer Olympics and Paralympic Games, the demand for enhanced public safety infrastructure will increase significantly,” Mayor James Butts and Police Chief Mark Fronterotta wrote in a message to council members urging them to approve the measures, funded largely through a state grant.
“The city is expected to experience a substantial influx of visitors associated with these events, requiring advanced and integrated systems to ensure maximum public safety, operational readiness, and effective security coordination,” they wrote. “This increase in activity across the region will place heightened demands on public safety resources and coordination. Continued investment in an updated, integrated infrastructure reflects the city’s strategic commitment to maintaining a safe community, enhancing real-time operational capabilities, and ensuring readiness for both current and future public safety needs.”
Some activists have been pressing the city to implement body-worn cameras for police officers. Among them have been relatives of 37-year-old Bryan Bostic, who died while in police custody on March 10. Bostic’s relatives said a lack of camera footage has led to lingering questions about his death.
“Inglewood is not safe. Inglewood is not a place to be,” Bostic’s aunt, Marie Darden, told NBC4 Tuesday at City Hall. “Many tourists are out here. Billions of dollars are being generated, and still no safety for the community. And I just think somebody needs to give me, our family, some type of answers at this time.”
Butts told Channel 4 Tuesday’s vote means the city is “overhauling the entire computer matrix of the Inglewood Police Department.”
“We are putting in a new system that is going to integrate with our cameras that we have out in the field,” he said. “It’s going to be integrated with our computer dispatch system, and it will come with a body-worn camera system that is integrated into that system.”
City officials said the body-worn cameras could be in operation by the end of the year.