Galveston County Sheriff | The drone programs
The Sheriff's Office launched a drone program in 2022 and had eight pilots by late 2023. A constable's precinct flies one too. Both aircraft in the record were bought by a private nonprofit and donated, and the one drone item the Court ever pulled off consent is the only surveillance vote in three years of minutes to draw a No.
At a glance
- When the Sheriff started
- 2022. The Sheriff told the Court in October 2023 that the office had launched its drone program that year, to improve officer safety, diagram large crime scenes and deploy on search and rescue operations [1]
- Pilots
- 8, as stated by the Sheriff in October 2023 [1]
- Aircraft in the record
- Two, both donated by the Law Enforcement Alliance for Galveston County, Inc., a nonprofit: an Autel EVO II Pro to Constable Precinct 4 in May 2023, and a DJI Mavic 3 Enterprise with a battery kit, $4,287.00, to the Sheriff's Office in October 2023 [1] [2]
- What the county paid for
- A drone flight software license, funded by a budget transfer in October 2023, and Pix4D mapping software budgeted for FY2024 [1] [3]
- The one recorded No
- 2 October 2023: a budget transfer funding Constable Precinct 4's annual drone warranty was pulled out of the consent block and passed 4-1, Commissioner Holmes voting no [4]
- A flight log or usage report
- None appears in the county record [5]
- A drone policy
- None has been presented to the Commissioners Court in the record we read [5]
How it happened
- Procurement
A donated drone for a constable
The Purchasing Agent asked the Court to accept into inventory one drone, case, charger and accessories, an Autel EVO II Pro, donated by the Law Enforcement Alliance for Galveston County for use by Constable Precinct 4. [2]
- Debate
The warranty draws a dissent
Item 68, a transfer from budgeted reserves to Constable Precinct 4's maintenance and repairs line to fund the drone's annual warranty, was taken out of the consent block and voted on by itself. It passed 4-1, with Commissioner Holmes voting no. It is the only vote on anything in this dossier, or in any other on this county's pages, that a member of the Court opposed outside Operation Lone Star business. [4]
- Procurement
Flight software
A budget transfer funded the purchase of a drone flight software license for the Sheriff's Office Administration. [3]
- Procurement
A donated drone for the Sheriff
The Court considered accepting a DJI Mavic 3 Enterprise and battery kit, $4,287.00, purchased for the Sheriff's Office by the same nonprofit. The Sheriff's covering letter says the aircraft is for crime scene mapping, traffic crash photography and traffic collision diagramming, and that it works with the Pix4D software budgeted for FY2024 and the office's FARO 3D scanning software. [1]
Galveston County’s drones did not arrive through a purchase order. They arrived as gifts.
Two donated aircraft
In April 2023 the county’s Purchasing Agent asked the Commissioners Court to accept into inventory one drone, with case, charger and accessories, an Autel EVO II Pro, donated by the Law Enforcement Alliance for Galveston County, Inc. for use by Constable Precinct 4. Six months later the Sheriff asked the Court to accept a DJI Mavic 3 Enterprise and a battery kit from the same nonprofit, $4,287.00, for crime scene mapping, traffic crash photography and traffic collision diagramming.
The Sheriff’s letter is the fullest description of the program anywhere in the county’s record. It says the office launched its drone program in 2022 to improve officer safety, diagram large crime scenes and deploy on search and rescue, and that the department had eight pilots in the program at the time of writing. It also says the aircraft is compatible with Pix4D mapping software budgeted for FY2024 and with the office’s existing FARO 3D scanning software.
What the county paid for directly was the software: a drone flight software license, funded in October 2023 by a transfer from budgeted reserves.
The one item that was pulled
On 2 October 2023 the Court’s consent block ran to 76 items. Three were taken out of it, and one of those was item 68: a transfer of money to Constable Precinct 4’s maintenance and repairs line to pay the drone’s annual warranty. Voted on by itself, it passed 4-1, with Commissioner Stephen D. Holmes voting no.
Across the 106 sets of minutes published for August 2023 to September 2026, the Court recorded 573 votes and 20 dissents. Six touch surveillance. Five are about Operation Lone Star. The sixth is that drone warranty. No plate reader, tracker, pole camera or phone extraction contract in this county has ever drawn a recorded No, because none of them was ever taken out of the block to be voted on separately.
What the record does not say
No Galveston County record we read states how many aircraft either office now flies, how often they fly, what they are flown for in practice, or whether a log is kept. Neither office has presented a drone policy to the Court.
The donation route is worth noticing
A drone bought by a nonprofit and given to an agency reaches the Commissioners Court as an item about accepting property into inventory. The Court can decline it, and the acceptance is public, so nothing here is hidden. But the decision a purchase would normally force, about whether the county wants the capability and what it should cost, is not the decision in front of the Court. What the Court is asked is whether to take a gift. The county’s own money then appears later, in the warranty and the software, one budget transfer at a time.
What we do not know
- How many aircraft the Sheriff's Office and the constables now fly.
- How many flights they have made, for what purposes, and whether any log is kept.
- Whether either office has a written drone policy.
What you can do
Show up
Systems like this one are approved by boards, councils and committees that meet in public. We have confirmed where each of them meets in Galveston County and how public comment works there.
How to show up in Galveston 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.
- 2. Purchasing Agent letter on acceptance of donated equipment for Constable Precinct 4, 25 April 2023 · Meeting record · · accessed
- 3. Galveston County budget amendment 24-14-1016-F, drone flight software license, 10 October 2023 · Meeting record · · accessed
- 4. Galveston County Commissioners Court, minutes, 2 October 2023, item 68 · Meeting record · · accessed
- 5.
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