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Seaside police submit annual AB 481 report: rifles, drones and limited 2024 in-city deployments
Summary
The Seaside Police Department presented its AB 481 annual report, listing rifles, less-lethal shotguns, a SRU command vehicle and drones; the department reported limited in-city use of high-capability equipment in 2024 and 371 drone flights mainly for training and general law enforcement.
Commander Matt Doza of the Seaside Police Department presented the annual report on military equipment and the department’s usage data required by Assembly Bill 481.
Doza briefed council on equipment the department owns or contributes to the Monterey Peninsula Regional Special Response Unit (SRU). He listed patrol rifles (Colt M4 and AR-pattern rifles), a Remington 870 breaching shotgun, less-lethal 870 shotguns, an FN precision rifle for SRU use, specced munitions and the department’s command-and-control vehicle assigned to the SRU. He also listed drone assets (three smaller Avada drones for indoor tasks and two Matrice 30T units for outdoor searches).
On deployments, Doza said Seaside recorded zero in-city deployments of the command vehicle and zero in-city uses of kinetic-energy (less-lethal) weapons during 2024. Drone usage totaled 371 flights in 2024: 56 were training flights, 104 supported general law enforcement activities (searches, perimeters and suspect searches), 37 supported fireworks enforcement (notably around July 4), 3 were outside-agency assists, 16 covered New Year’s and July 4 enforcement, 13 assisted fire departments, 9 supported missing-person searches, and 3 were search-and-rescue flights. One drone deployment was for an SRU activity outside Seaside.
Doza recommended the council approve the annual report and continue the current equipment and policy authorizations under the city’s AB 481 military-equipment policy. He emphasized the department’s limited use of the listed equipment inside city limits in 2024 and described the SRU as a multi-agency resource available when incidents require specialized capabilities.
The council had no objections and adopted the report by unanimous consent as an annual informational item.
"This was a report that needs careful annual review," Doza said in his presentation, noting that the SRU is an interagency asset and that large-scale deployments are rare inside Seaside.
