Santa Ana city leaders listen in as Police Chief Robert Rodriguez speaks during the city council meeting this week.
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Yusra Farzan
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LAist
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Topline:
Santa Ana City Council members voted 4-3 Tuesday to affirm their support for the city’s military equipment policy — despite community opposition.
What it means: The vote means the Santa Ana Police Department can continue using weapons, including less-lethal bean bag shotgun rounds, drones and armored vehicles.
Why it matters: The vote comes as the city grapples to balance its status as the only so-called “Sanctuary City” in Orange County with a police force seen by some critics as overpolicing its residents.
Read on ... for more about the controversial policy.
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Santa Ana embraces military hardware for police
Santa Ana city leaders voted 4-3 on Tuesday to affirm their support for the city’s military equipment policy — despite community opposition.
The vote means the Santa Ana Police Department can continue using weapons, including less-lethal bean bag shotgun rounds, drones and armored vehicles. But the policy has its critics.
“For what purpose does a local police department need that?” Abraham Quintana, a local community organizer told LAist ahead of the meeting.
The vote comes as the city grapples to balance its status as the only so-called “Sanctuary City” in Orange County with a police force seen by some critics as overpolicing its residents.
Now that the council has approved the military equipment policy, the Police Department is allowed to seek funding for and request surplus military equipment from the federal government.
How we got here
State law requires police departments to publish an annual report detailing the use and acquisition of these weapons. AB 481 also requires city leaders to annually vote on their military equipment policy allowing for the weapons to be used.
Santa Ana Police Department has not been in compliance with the law for the past two years, admitting that “we messed up.” Tuesday’s vote was meant to bring them into compliance, and included a controversial topic — drones.
“The Police Department has conducted thorough research on developing an Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) program. The Department has identified several vendors capable of providing systems that meet our specific requirements. It has also identified a non-general fund source of money and is requesting City Council approval to purchase and implement a UAS program, with initial costs not to exceed $250,000,” the police department wrote in its 2024-25 military equipment report.
The unmanned aerial system program is a drone program.
Last week, Santa Ana Police Commander Mat Sorenson also said the department is looking to implement a drone program. He said the city has identified funding for the program and has taken steps to begin crafting a drone-use policy that borrows language from the ACLU.
Close readers of the annual military equipment report will notice that in the 2022-23 and 2023-24 editions, the Police Department wrote that they were conducting research for a drone program for “possible future purchases.” In the 2024-25 edition, they wrote about the drone program as a “future purchase.”
The language approved Tuesday night by the Santa Ana City Council.
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Santa Ana City Hall
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What did city leaders say
But some city leaders said the drone program was not a done deal. Mayor Valerie Amezcua, Councilmember Thai Viet Phan, Police Chief Robert Rodriguez and City Manager Alvaro Nuñez all said at the meeting Tuesday that the City Council has not approved the purchase of drones.
“ There is no request to purchase drones. That portion of the military equipment report is a future item to present, to bring later to council,” Rodriguez said.
Before casting her vote supporting the military equipment policy, Phan said, “ The City Council has not discussed or seen a draft policy relating to the purchase of drones.”
LAist has reached out to the mayor, Phan and the police chief. We will update our story when and if we hear back.
City spokesperson Paul Eakins declined to comment for the story, referring LAist to the military equipment policy.
What's next?
Sorenson said last week at the community meeting that the Police Department has identified a funding source for the drone program.
”The funding we have allocated for it is from a supplemental law enforcement funding source,” he said. “It's not general fund money, it's an, in essence, a grant.”
The community weighs in
No member of the public spoke in favor of the military equipment policy at the meeting.
”This policy allows Santa Ana PD to have ... ambush-protected vehicles, which are weapons of war,” Quintana said. “They're deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq and other places where the United States military is operating.”
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He also questioned the need to such equipment in Orange County.
During the public comment portion of the meeting, Bulmaro Vicente, political and policy director for Chispa, a nonprofit Chicano rights organization, criticized the city’s failure to bring the issue of military equipment before the public.
“That’s three years of no transparency, three years of no accountability,” he said. “If the Police Department cannot even comply with a basic transparency law, how can we trust them to responsibly or legally use the equipment they are asking you to approve today — like the drone program?”
