The Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Atlas of Surveillance database lists more than 1,800 police departments and sheriff’s offices operating drones in the United States. The nonprofit organization also highlighted a significant increase in U.S. law enforcement adopting “drones as first responders” programs in 2025, in which tech and drone companies team up to sell law enforcement on drones with advanced surveillance capabilities.
Such companies offering drone surveillance systems for law enforcement include Flock Safety, Axon and Skydio, and Brink and Motorola Solutions. For example, Flock’s drones carry the company’s automated license plate readers.
“Flying cameras are bad enough,” Beryl Lipton, a senior investigative researcher at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, wrote in reference to drone-as-first-responder programs. “They can view and record footage from a particular vantage point, capturing video of your home, your backyard and your movements which should require clear policies regarding retention, audit and use, including what the cameras should not be recording.”
The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office has listed 18 drones on its list for its 2025 annual report, which includes commercial multirotor drones made by Chinese drone makers DJI and Autel, as well as a single fixed-wing drone from Ohio-based company Event 38 that is capable of vertical takeoff and landing.
According to KCRA 3 TV station, in September 2025, Sacramento County Supervisors unanimously approved the purchase of another 27 drones for the Sheriff’s Office with an initial price of $5,000 per drone. The purchase of the drone came as part of a larger $1 million package for the sheriff’s office that also included a robot and a Bearcat armored vehicle as well as other military-style equipment.
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