Who flies surveillance drones in Sonoma County?
- Active Code enforcement drones
- Agency
- Permit Sonoma
- Vendor
- DJI
- Devices
- —
- Active Drones
- Agency
- Sonoma County Sheriff's Office
- Vendor
- —
- Devices
- —
| System | Agency | Vendor | Status | Devices |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Code enforcement drones | Permit Sonoma | DJI | Active | — |
| Drones | Sonoma County Sheriff's Office | — | Active | — |
What we do not know
Permit Sonoma
- Permit Sonoma's drone policy itself, which we have not obtained.
- The flight log, the photo set and the grant records, all of which the complaint says exist and were produced under the Public Records Act.
- Whether the Board of Supervisors has ever taken up the program, and whether any ordinance authorises it.
- How the case is resolved, and whether any court reaches the constitutional question.
- Whether other California counties run comparable code enforcement drone programs.
Sonoma County Sheriff
- The 2024 and 2025 military equipment annual reports, neither of which we located.
- Which aircraft flew the 19 missions the 2023 report counts, which the report does not break out.
- Whether Policy 606 has been revised since its June 2022 stamp.
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 Sonoma County.
Go to the Sonoma 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 ↗