California
Imperial County
On record
Checked 20 Aug 2026- Technologies
- 1
- Systems
- 1
- Devices mapped
- 242
Imperial County, California. Device data © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), with community reporting via DeFlock. Open the full map →
This is a thin account, and the reason belongs first. The Board of Supervisors publishes its agendas through a host whose robots file excludes automated readers, so this project has read no contract, no approval and no dollar figure for anything in this county.
What is on the record is one document, and the Sheriff’s Office published it about itself because a state law told it to. Its AB 481 inventory for the 2022-2023 financial year reports eight unmanned aerial vehicles, alongside an armoured vehicle, two recreational vehicles converted into command posts, and a quantity of tear gas, smoke and kinetic munitions.
Eight drones is a large fleet for a county this size, and the figure is not an estimate. It is the agency’s own count, in the disclosure the Legislature designed to produce exactly this visibility. The whole published account of how they were used that year is one sentence: two of them flew to view the area around locations where suspects had firearms.
The policy those drones fly under is published on the same page and cannot be read. It is a scan produced on a copier, with no text layer at all, so it is available without being searchable. That is a real limit on what publishing achieves, and it is not a hidden document.
On licence plate readers this county is a blank, and it is an honest blank rather than a finding. The Sheriff’s website has fourteen pages and none of them concerns plate readers, which tells you about a website. A records request on exactly that question was filed with the office through a service whose host challenges our fetcher. A third-party listing places one city’s police department among the vendor’s customers, and no document confirms it.
The most useful thing here for a resident is in the law itself. AB 481 requires a community engagement meeting within thirty days of each annual report, and an annual review by the board with the power to refuse a renewal. The Sheriff’s own page sets out both requirements. Those are the rooms where eight drones are, by law, a thing the public gets to discuss.
What's in use here
Eight of them, counted by the office itself in the disclosure state law requires. The policy they fly under is published as a scan nobody can read.
Who runs it
The agency is the accountability unit: who voted, whose policy applies, and who answers a records request.
| Agency | Jurisdiction | Systems |
|---|---|---|
| Imperial County Sheriff's Office | Imperial County | 1 |
| 1 agency on record. A jointly run system counts against each of its operators, so this column is not a county total. | ||
Trackers
Meetings, contracts, records
Nothing listed yet. The trackers launch here, and facts appear only with their sources.
How the inventory works →What you can do
Civic action
Show up
Public comment is open to any resident, and you do not have to be an expert to use it. We have not yet confirmed where the bodies that decide for Imperial County meet. How the inventory works explains what we check and how to check it yourself.
How the inventory works →Personal protection
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.
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