Claborn greets officer who returned from military mission

The City Council and residents gave a hero’s welcome to a Los Alamitos police officer who returned from a trip abroad to resume his duties with the city’s police department.
“First of all, I want to thank you all for coming out tonight,” said Los Alamitos Police Chief Michael Claborn.

“I would like the Los Alamitos Police Department to be very gracious in recognizing the sacrifices that people make in the fight for the freedoms that all of us here, unfortunately, take for granted,” Claborn said.

“Given that we are a military city and the Joint Forces training base is being built here in the city, we should first and foremost recognize those sacrifices,” he added. “We don’t have to look far to be able to do that.”

“None other than our officer Christian Cruz, who is the only member of the Los Alamitos Police Department who is currently serving in the United States military, the United States Marine Corps,” Claborn said as the council and the public applauded.

In August 2023, Claborn announced that Officer Cruz, a member of the United States Marine Corps Reserve, had been commissioned for overseas duty until May.

“Join me as we wish Officer Christian Cruz Godspeed. He was activated by the United States Marine Corps to serve his country. We couldn’t be more proud and praying for your safe return,” Claborn said in an Instagram post.

That day has now arrived, as Cruz has returned to work for the department and attended last week’s Los Angeles City Council meeting with Claborn and other officers.

“For those who don’t know, before he was sent to the United States Marine Corps, he took an exam to prepare him to be a motor officer with the Los Alamitos Police Department,” Claborn said.

He said Cruz was about to start training when he was drafted by the military. “So he wasn’t able to attend that training, but I don’t think we could give him any better reward to look forward to when he gets back than having that brand new motorcycle sitting right in front of him,” the police chief said.

Now, he said, Cruz will begin motor skills training. “We can’t wait for him to finish his training and represent his department,” Claborn said.
Officer Cruz thanked the Chief, the Council, the community and his department.

“I just want to sincerely thank you, it’s been really great to be back,” Cruz said. “I have such great leadership in my department, I’m very fortunate, from the chief all the way down to the sergeants and corporals in my department,” he added, “who have really shown me a lot of support and a lot of love.”

Sergeant Cruz said after the meeting that he had been sent to Okinawa, Japan, for specialized military training.

“They welcomed me with open arms,” Cruz said. Returning to work at the Los Al Police Department “was really easy for me, like second nature. Honestly, I missed it.
“I thought about it every day, waiting for the moment when I could go out on the streets again,” he added.

“And now, in this next chapter, I’m going to go into automotive, bring something back to town, and it’s just going to get better and better from here.” He said his accomplishments are for everyone in the department, “because I’m a product of every single one of them.”

“So when I come back from the garage, I’m really going to get to work and make the streets of Los Al safer and keep doing the good work I’m doing,” Cruz said.
Claborn honored Cruz with a Mothers Against Drunk Driving award for having the most drunken driving arrests (30) in the past year.

Claborn said Officer Cru was able to get 30 arrests, but that’s not what makes it so amazing. So he was able to do that job with only a job from January to July before he was deployed,” Claborn said.

“He didn’t even work a full year,” he added.

Cruz was also recognized by Mayor Jordan Nefulda and the Los Al City Council, Assemblyman Tri Ta’s office and Senator Janet Nguyen’s office.