Clark County Sheriff | Drones
830 flights and 221 flight hours in 2023, a DJI fleet feeding footage into the Axon evidence system, and the unit's own published verdict on its rules: "The UAS policy, unchanged since 2017, needs updating."
At a glance
- 2023 in the unit's own numbers
- "the UAS team flew more than 221 flight hours and 830 individual flights", supporting nearly all 87 regional SWAT missions, plus patrol, traffic, Special Investigations, search and rescue, and explosive ordnance work [1]
- The fleet
- DJI, with "four new DJI M30 platforms" added in 2023 — the unit calls the M30 its workhorse; seven platforms and 21 operators carried Axon Air licenses [1]
- Where the footage goes
- Axon Air licenses integrate the drone platforms "into our BWC program" — drone footage lands in the same Axon evidence system as the body cameras [1]
- The rules, per the unit itself
- "The UAS policy, unchanged since 2017, needs updating." The FAA Certificate of Waiver or Authorization was up for renewal in the report year [1]
- Governing statute
- Washington has no statute regulating public-agency drone surveillance; the program's paper exists because the agency publishes an annual report [2]
How it happened
- Context
The policy's vintage
The unit's 2023 report dates its policy here: "The UAS policy, unchanged since 2017, needs updating." [1]
- Context
The 2023 annual report publishes
The unit's year in its own numbers: 830 flights, 221 flight hours, four new M30s, two regional training academies hosted, and the Axon Air integration with its compatibility complaints noted. [1]
An agency grading its own paperwork
The useful facts here come from the unit itself. The Sheriff’s 2023 annual report counts 830 flights and 221 flight hours, names the DJI M30 as the fleet’s workhorse and the four new airframes added, lists the missions from regional SWAT support to search and rescue, and then says what few agencies print about themselves: “The UAS policy, unchanged since 2017, needs updating.” A program that grew from occasional flights to 830 a year under rules written in 2017 is a gap the unit identified in public, and the records request asks whether the update happened.
One evidence system for air and body
The report’s quietest important line is the Axon Air integration: seven drone platforms and 21 operators licensed “into our BWC program”. Drone footage and body camera footage land in the same vendor’s evidence system, which means the retention rules, access controls, and disclosure mechanics of that one platform govern what a camera in the air and a camera on a chest both saw. Washington law sets a retention floor and disclosure rules for body camera recordings; how the same system treats aerial footage, with no drone statute in the state, is exactly the kind of question the shared platform makes concrete.
What we do not know
- Whether the 2017 policy has been updated since the unit's own 2023 call for it, and the renewed FAA authorization; both in the drafted records request.
- The full fleet inventory and cost, which the report's narrative implies but does not table.
- The retention and access rules for drone footage inside the Axon evidence system, where it shares a platform with body camera video.
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 Clark County.
What we have documented in Clark 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. Clark County Sheriff's Office 2023 Annual Report (Unmanned Aerial Systems section) · Primary document · accessed
- 2.
Get the digest
A regular digest of what changed in the world of surveillance: the counties we published, the devices that appeared on the map, and the public meetings where these decisions get made. We send it when there is enough to report.
One click to unsubscribe. What we do with your address is on the newsletter page.