Whatcom County Sheriff | Drones
Two Skydio X10s bought through Axon in 2024 for high-risk operations, search and rescue, and technical investigations, under a house policy whose effective-date field is blank.
At a glance
- The purchase
- Bid #24-74, awarded by the council 6 August 2024: two Skydio X10 drones, accessories, software and training from Axon Enterprise, not to exceed $57,484.20 (AB2024-506) [1]
- The stated uses
- "during high risk operations, Search and Rescue, and technical investigations" (Sheriff Tanksley's memo to the council, 17 July 2024) [2]
- The policy
- The office's published sUAS policy: sub-55-pound systems, deployments authorized by the Sheriff, command staff, or authorized supervisory personnel; the published PDF's effective-date field is blank [3]
- Before this
- The Atlas of Surveillance recorded one drone as of 2018; the 2024 purchase is the current county-verified record [4]
How it happened
Bought through the camera vendor
The purchase went through a public bid, and the Sheriff’s memo to the council says what the aircraft are for: high-risk operations, search and rescue, and technical investigations. The winning bidder was Axon, the same company that supplies the office’s body cameras and the cloud that three county offices pay to reach, with Skydio as the airframe.
The policy is the office’s own, in its house directives format rather than Lexipol: deployments need authorization from the Sheriff, command staff, or authorized supervisory personnel, and the permitted-use list runs from scene documentation to tactical deployment. The one blank on the published document is its effective date, which the records request asks for.
What we do not know
- The current fleet inventory and flight logs; whether the 2018-era aircraft remains in service alongside the two X10s.
- The sUAS policy's effective date, blank in the published PDF.
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 Whatcom County.
What we have documented in Whatcom 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. Whatcom County Council agenda, 6 August 2024, item AB2024-506 · Primary document · · accessed
- 2. Sheriff Donnell Tanksley, staff memo recommending award of Bid · Primary document · · accessed
- 3. Whatcom County Sheriff's Office, Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (sUAS) policy · Primary document · accessed
- 4. EFF Atlas of Surveillance, Whatcom County Sheriff's Office drone row (AOS004009) · Dataset · accessed
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