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Board approves sheriff's annual military-equipment report and related ordinance after debate on drones and robots
Summary
The Board of Supervisors accepted the Santa Clara County Sheriff's annual military equipment report and approved an ordinance updating the sheriff's military equipment use policy after discussion about drones, robots and review practices. Oakland's independent reviewer described the county report as unusually transparent.
The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday accepted the sheriff's annual military equipment report and adopted an update to the county's ordinance governing sheriff's military equipment use.
The report, presented by Capt. Bridal O'Mourin and Capt. Tony Fernandez, documented uses of equipment in law enforcement and custody settings and proposed new deployments including a drone-as-first-responder program, a tactical robot for the SWAT team, a PepperBall projectile designed to penetrate glass, and energetic breaching charges for door breaching by the tactical team. Capt. O'Mourin told the board the office's reported calls for service had "increased by about 12,000," and that, aside from newly introduced drone deployments, uses of approved equipment on the enforcement side were roughly unchanged year over year.
The sheriff's presentation also noted a drop in custody…
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