The Oakland Police Department on Wednesday pitched drones to a small community audience as a way to address what it described as staffing shortages and budget constraints.
During its annual Military Equipment Use town hall meeting in East Oakland, police officials presented the 2025 Military Equipment Use Report, detailing how military equipment was used over the past year, what it cost and how the department plans to use it in the future.
The department’s Military Equipment Use Report is mandated by state Assembly Bill 481, which was signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom in September 2021. A community engagement meeting is also required by the same state law.
Summarizing the report, department officials reported zero Internal Affairs Bureau and California Public Records Act complaints surrounding Oakland police’s deployment of military equipment, while also noting a decrease from last year in the total number of times military equipment was deployed.
However, the report did note an increase in the department’s deployment of drones in the past year. In 2025, the department reported deploying drones on 170 occasions, after deploying such equipment 145 times in 2024.
The increase in drone usage reflects the Oakland Police Department’s expansion of its Unmanned Aircraft System in recent years, which has allowed the department to use drones to support department investigations and gain an aerial view on hazardous situations.
“[It’s] an exceptional tool for us to get a tactical advantage on the individual, because we can get eyes on them first,” said acting Capt. William Febel. “It’s extremely important if we can place ourselves in a situation where we understand who we’re dealing with, the level of threat and the circumstances surrounding the threat.”
Police officials also spoke about a desire to expand the department’s drone usage to a Drone First Responder program, that would dispatch drones to emergency cars before police officers.
“It can remove a lot of contact between the police and the community,” said acting Deputy Chief Omar Daza-Quiroz, the leader of the department’s drone program. “That’s why we are looking at more drones and we are also looking at DFR, which is a Drone First Responder program.”
Oakland would not be the first city to adopt a DFR program, with department officials citing the usage of DFR programs in San Francisco as well as Chula Vista and Santa Monica in Southern California as examples of the technology’s implementation elsewhere. On June 22, the city of Hayward adopted a DFR policy for its 911 calls.
Daza-Quiroz and Febel also pointed to what they described as staffing shortages and budget constraints within the department as key reasons for expanding the use of drone technology.
Police budget constraints?
The department representatives were especially passionate about the police’s budget, when a community member criticized the city of Oakland’s funding of the police in recent years.
“They did defund us,” said Daza-Quiroz. “We’re looking at whatever donations, funds, different perspectives, different ideas of how to police and get more resources.”
Although Oakland police officials cited budget constraints, the city’s adopted budget for fiscal years 2025-27 show the department’s authorized expenditures for FY 2026-27 increased by approximately $25 million compared with the prior fiscal year.
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