The Lake County Sheriff’s Office now flies drones that can see heat. It bought three of them in the fiscal year that ended June 30. Last year’s report listed none. Its armored vehicle was deployed nine times that year, up from five the year before.
Those numbers come from the office’s annual “military equipment” report. The Board of Supervisors takes it up Tuesday, Nov. 10, at 10:30 a.m. Sheriff Luke Bingham asks the board to review it and “vote to renew ordinance #3123.” That’s the 2022 county law that approves the office’s rules for using the equipment.
What the law requires
A 2021 state law, Assembly Bill 481, says police and sheriff’s offices need a yes from their local board, by ordinance, before they buy or use what the state calls military equipment. The list covers armored vehicles, drones, robots, flash-bang grenades, tear gas, beanbag and other less-lethal launchers, and some rifles. Each office must report every year what it has, how it used it, what it cost and what it plans to buy. The board must vote each year on whether to renew the ordinance.
The county ordinance gives the board a choice when a type of equipment falls short of the standards. The board must either refuse to renew approval for that type or require changes to the policy.
Drones with thermal cameras
The report says the office paid about $32,394 for three DJI Matrice 4T drones. It describes them as having thermal imaging, high-resolution cameras and “advanced AI-assisted detection capabilities.” They were flown 40 times in training and deployed 11 times. The report lists their purpose as finding missing people, suspects and evidence. It doesn’t say what each deployment was for.
The office also has DJI Avata 2 drones. The report calls them “small agile shielded UAS primarily used indoors or in crowded spaces.” They flew 18 times in training and were deployed eight times. One passage says the office bought two Avata 2 drones for about $7,170.32 in the 2026-27 fiscal year. The inventory sheet in the same report and the sheriff’s slides list three.
Armored vehicle out 9 times
The office’s LAV-150 is a wheeled armored vehicle it got from the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office in 2014. The slides say it protects against gunfire up to .50 caliber and is used to rescue people, carry SWAT team members, break into reinforced buildings and deploy chemical munitions. It was deployed nine times in 2025-26 and five times in 2024-25. The team’s GMC 5500 van also went out nine times, up from five.
Most other items on the list show no use, including flash-bang grenades, tear gas canisters and two robots. The table lists one use of a “Super Sock” round. That’s a bag of cotton and ballistic fabric, filled with shot, that’s fired from a shotgun.
How to weigh in
The board meets at 9 a.m. at 255 N. Forbes St., Lakeport, and on Zoom. Written comments can be sent through the eComment link on the meeting at countyoflake.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx.
Costs and complaints
The report puts the year’s cost of the equipment at about $63,122. Last year’s report put it at about $24,001 and said the office bought no new military equipment that year.
The report says the office got no complaints about the equipment, found no policy violations and found no missing items in its annual inventory. The office also gave its Eagle fifth-wheel command post trailer to the Modoc County Sheriff’s Office, with board approval.
The report says the office plans to buy more military equipment this fiscal year “to replace equipment that is timing out.” Last year’s report used the same sentence. Neither one says what the office plans to buy.