Antioch Police | Drones
Antioch's military equipment posting lists six drone models with quantities and unit costs, from a $450 hobby-sized aircraft to a $6,500 thermal model. Every page of the file the city publishes is watermarked as a draft.
At a glance
- DJI Mavic 2 Enterprise Advanced
- 6 aircraft, $6,500 each. Thermal camera, lights and speakers [1]
- DJI Mavic 2 Dual
- 2 aircraft, $3,350 each. Thermal camera, lights and speaker [1]
- DJI Mavic Enterprise Zoom
- 5 aircraft, $1,500 each. Lights, speaker, flight path tracking [1]
- DJI Air 2
- 4 aircraft, $800 each [1]
- DJI Mavic Air
- 6 aircraft, $500 each [1]
- DJI Mini 2
- 2 aircraft, $450 each. Flight path tracking [1]
- Annual running cost
- Approximately $7,500 for maintenance and battery replacement [1]
- Stated purposes
- Major collision investigation, missing persons, natural disaster management, crime scene documentation, tactical incidents, and requests from fire personnel [1]
- Status of the published file
- Every page carries the running text "***DRAFT*** Military Equipment" [1]
- Flight counts and purposes
- not in the inventory, which lists equipment and cost rather than use
How it happened
- Context
Atlas snapshot records drones in use
The EFF Atlas of Surveillance records the department operating 25 drones as of 2023. [2]
- Context
Military equipment policy and inventory posted
The file the city serves at its military equipment address carries a Lexipol copyright stamp of July 16, 2024, and includes an inventory attachment listing six drone models with quantities and unit costs. [1]
What the record establishes
California requires law-enforcement agencies to adopt a military equipment policy and publish an inventory, and unmanned aerial vehicles fall inside the statutory definition. Antioch publishes both, with the inventory as an attachment.
The aircraft, as the inventory lists them: six DJI Mavic 2 Enterprise Advanced at $6,500 each, described as carrying “lights and speakers and a thermal camera”; two DJI Mavic 2 Dual at $3,350 each, also with a thermal camera; five DJI Mavic Enterprise Zoom at $1,500 each; four DJI Air 2 at $800 each; six DJI Mavic Air at $500 each; and two DJI Mini 2 at $450 each.[1] Annual maintenance and battery replacement is given as “approx. $7,500.00”, and the expected lifespan as “2-3 years depending on usage”.[1]
The stated purposes are major collision investigations, searching for missing persons, natural disaster management, crime scene documentation, tactical and life preservation situations, and responses to requests from fire personnel.[1] Operation is limited to trained operators, all licensed by the Federal Aviation Administration.[1]
The same document lists the department’s armoured vehicle: an “International, NAVSTAR, MAXXPRO M1224, Cost $658,000 (received from military at no cost). Quantity 1.”[1]
The posted file is marked draft
Every page of the PDF the city serves at its military equipment address carries the running text “DRAFT Military Equipment” alongside a Lexipol copyright stamp of 16 July 2024.[1] We record what the document says and draw no conclusion about why it says it. The practical consequence for a reader is that the adopted text cannot be identified from this file alone.
What it does not establish
An inventory is a list of things owned. It says nothing about how often the aircraft fly, over what, at whose direction, or what happens to the footage. The inventory cites the department’s drone use policy as policy 341 but does not reproduce it. The Atlas of Surveillance snapshot in this repo records 25 drones in use as of 2023, a dated third-party row.[2]
Where to ask
State law pairs the published inventory with an annual report and a community engagement meeting where the department answers questions about funding, acquisition and use. The policy quoted here commits the department to holding that meeting within 30 days of releasing the report. Asking when it is, and putting the flight-count question there, uses the mechanism the statute built. A records request for the adopted policy and for flight logs by count and purpose would answer the rest.
Questions
- What drones does Antioch have?
- The published inventory lists six models: six DJI Mavic 2 Enterprise Advanced, two Mavic 2 Dual, five Mavic Enterprise Zoom, four Air 2, six Mavic Air and two Mini 2. We list the rows as the document lists them rather than giving one total, because a total is not what the document states. [1]
- What can they see?
- The inventory describes the two Mavic 2 models as carrying thermal cameras, along with lights and speakers. The others are described as recording video and taking photographs, with some able to track flight paths. [1]
- What are they used for?
- The inventory lists major collision investigations, searching for missing persons, natural disaster management, crime scene documentation, tactical and life preservation situations, and responses to requests from local, state or federal fire personnel. [1]
- Why does it matter that the file says draft?
- Because a military equipment policy takes effect when the governing body adopts it, and the annual report and community meeting that follow are tied to that adopted policy. A file watermarked as a draft at the address where the adopted policy should sit leaves a resident unable to tell which text governs. We state what the file says and draw no conclusion about why. [1]
What we do not know
- Whether an adopted, non-draft version of the military equipment policy is published, and where.
- How many flights have been made, for what purposes, and over where.
- Whether the annual military equipment report and community engagement meeting have happened.
- The department's drone use policy, which the inventory cites as policy 341 but does not reproduce.
What you can do
Show up
Systems like this one are approved by boards, councils and committees that meet in public. We have not yet confirmed where each of them meets in Contra Costa County.
What we have documented in Contra Costa County →Protect yourself
Practical steps to shrink your personal data trail. Our guides publish at launch; until then, EFF's Surveillance Self-Defense is the best starting point.
Surveillance Self-Defense →Sources
- 1. Antioch Police Department, Policy 706 Military Equipment with Military Equipment Inventory attachment · Primary document · accessed
- 2.
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