Aiming to increase the transparency of police officer interactions with the public and limit use-of-force complaints, the Redondo Beach Police Department is expanding its use of body cameras.

The City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved the purchase of 30 body-worn cameras for its police force, with the majority of officers out on patrol expected to use the tool at some point.

The city will use funds from seized property and grants to cover the $150,000 price tag for the cameras and necessary hardware. They likely be in use in a couple of months, once they are ordered and delivered, and the officers undergo training.

Police officials kicked off a pilot program last April with six body-worn cameras, garnering 1,500 uploaded videos and “tremendous” support among all levels of police personnel, staff said.

The Redondo Beach Police Department hasn’t had cameras inside patrol vehicles for about 25 years because of funding and other concerns, but all officers do carry portable digital audio recorders, said Lt. Joe Hoffman.

Redondo Beach found that in-car dash cams provided a limited view in front of a patrol car; if an officer took two steps away from the front of the car, his or her activities were not captured on video.

The new body cameras, however, will be top of the line — providing high-quality video and audio that will be stored on a cloud-like data system. They also will offer a 130-degree view of a scene.

The department chose the Taser Axon camera because of its audio quality, ease of use, mounting options, cloud data storage and warranty. The company automatically will replace the cameras with the newest technology in 2 1/2 years and again in five years.

The Taser Axon already is used by police departments in Rialto, Ontario, Anaheim, Fullerton and others in Southern California, which have reported positive feedback.

“Rialto was on the cutting edge of body cameras,” Hoffman said. “They saw a 59 percent decrease in use-of-force complaints and an 88 percent decrease in personnel complaints. … There’s overwhelming support for the use of body cams not only in the U.S. but worldwide.”

Activation of the body cameras will not be required in Redondo Beach, but rather they will be used solely at the discretion of each officer. However, the 30 seconds of footage before an officer turns the camera on will be stored.

“The cameras increase transparency,” Hoffman said. “I think the public reacts differently when they know they’re being videotaped, and the officers know they’re on camera, too, and they behave differently as well.”

Hoffman said controversial deaths at the hands of police in Missouri and New York have heightened interest in body cameras, and the public likely will now expect them.

“You can’t watch a news program now without someone talking about, ‘I wish that incident was on camera’ or ‘Why aren’t police getting body-worn cameras?’ ” he said.

Redondo officers will be encouraged to turn the cameras on any time they feel a situation is developing where a recording would provide a benefit, such as in court. In the pilot program, the cameras were activated often when an officer was on patrol.

The camera will be mounted on the officer’s chest and can be turned on with two quick clicks.

“The transparency (the cameras) will provide I think is going to revolutionize policing,” Councilman Steve Sammarco said. “I’ve been on ride-alongs and the level of disrespect for our police officers is overwhelming. I think this is going to level the playing field. This is something that we have to do.”

Body cameras already are being used in some capacity by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and Hermosa Beach and El Segundo police departments. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti announced last month that 7,000 city police officers will wear body cams by 2016. Hawthorne Mayor Chris Brown wants all city officers to wear the devices soon, but the city is still in the process of selecting a camera model.

“The whole thing in my mind is to protect the officers,” Redondo Beach Mayor Steve Aspel said. “We want to protect your rights. You get accused of things that aren’t warranted. I don’t think most police officers are doing nasty things. As long as the police officers are happy using them, then I’m all for it.”

The Redondo Beach Police Officers Association supports body cameras, calling them a “valuable tool.”

“I think they’re great. They are the way of the future,” said Ian Miesen, the association’s vice president.

Miesen noted that while the videos do a great job capturing what officers are looking at, they won’t pick up cues that often alert veteran officers to trouble.

“We pick up a smell, we look at the way the hair stands on people, we see a guy is tensing or sweating. They don’t capture that,” he said.

As part of the Redondo Beach rollout, 45 patrol officers and supervisors will share 25 of the cameras, three cameras will be assigned to traffic officers and two will be given to detectives.

“There will be days of overlap when the camera they’re assigned to is already out in the field, but the good news is, the camera is out there,” Hoffman said. “Hopefully, on a major incident, there will be six or seven cameras out there recording from different angles.”

The camera data will be retained for a week, even if an officer erases it. An officer or supervisor must log in to the data storage program to modify or delete a video, Hoffman said.

If a video is related to a felony arrest or controversial case, the data can be retained indefinitely.