Oxnard Police present 2024 military equipment report; request approval to buy 40 mm launchers and .223 rifles

Commander Steve Trickle, Oxnard Police Department, presented the department's calendar-year 2024 military equipment use report to the Oxnard City Council and recommended the council receive the report, renew the city's military equipment ordinance, and approve continued authorization and acquisition of specified equipment.

The recommendation to council included: receive the annual report on the department's military equipment inventory and use; approve renewal of Oxnard Ordinance No. 3014 (codified in Oxnard City Code section 2-112) as the city's military equipment policy; approve continuing authorization for funding, acquisition, and use of items on the department's military equipment inventory; and approve acquisition and use of five additional 40 mm projectile launchers and 24 replacement .223-caliber rifles. The transcript did not include a council vote or final action on those recommendations.

Trickle gave counts and examples of equipment that the department reports as military equipment under Assembly Bill 481 (Gov. Code §§7070–7075). He said unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), commonly called drones, were used 180 times in 2024 and that all Oxnard PD drone pilots are Federal Aviation Administration certified and document operations in flight logs. "Drones are often the first resource on the scene and improve not only efficiencies, but enhance safety to both the responding officers as well as the public that we serve," Trickle said.

Trickle described four drone models in…