Council adopts Richmond Police Department’s 2024 military equipment report; asks for broader notice and future data on uses

The Richmond City Council voted to accept the Richmond Police Department’s 2024 military equipment annual report, determine that the department complied with its military equipment policy and state law, and renew the city ordinance that authorizes the department’s policy. Council members also unanimously added a direction asking staff to provide broader community notice for next year’s community engagement meeting and to include location and demographic data in next year’s report, subject to details to be worked out by mutual agreement.

Chief Bisa French presented the department report and said the agency supported the intent of state law (AB 481) to increase transparency around a narrow set of law enforcement equipment. “We fully support the intent behind AB 4 81,” Chief French told the council, and described how department staff had collected and summarized usages, training costs and inventory counts in the report.

What the report shows: the department reported inventory and use numbers for equipment categorized by state law. Key figures in the report:

- Unmanned aerial systems (drones): 8 total in inventory; 59 recorded uses in…