Skip to content
ORWELL INDEX

Who flies surveillance drones in Imperial County?

What we do not know

Imperial County Sheriff

  • What Policy 707.1 says. It is the policy these drones fly under and it is published as a scan with no text layer.
  • What the drones are, what they carry, and how often they fly. The report gives a count and one sentence.
  • Whether AB 481 annual reports exist for the years after 2022-2023, and where.
  • When the Board of Supervisors last conducted the annual review AB 481 requires, and when the last community engagement meeting was held.
  • What approved and paid for this equipment. The county's board record is closed to our tooling.

What drones are

An unmanned aircraft carrying a camera, flown by a public agency. Where a state classes drones as military equipment, as California does, a public policy and a governing-body vote are required before an agency uses one.

How they work, why agencies buy them, and every county we have documented →

What you can do

Civic action

Show up

This technology is bought and renewed by boards, councils and committees that meet in public. We have not yet confirmed where each of them meets in Imperial County.

Go to the Imperial County hub →

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.

Surveillance Self-Defense ↗