City Approves $700k for 911 Police Drones
The drones could be airborne in Thousand Oaks by November, over some resident objections.
Holly Bieler · August 28, 2026 · Thousand Oaks
Thousand Oaks will soon have police drones that launch toward 911 calls before a deputy is even dispatched, after the City Council voted 5–0 Tuesday night to spend $701,000 on a "drone as first responder" program.
Six Skydio X10 drones will sit in rooftop docks clustered in pairs at the west, middle and east ends of the city, all in commercial areas along the 101, Police Chief Jeremy Paris told the council.
A deputy pilot stationed in the dispatch center will fly them to burglaries, thefts and other high-priority calls 12 hours a day, seven days a week, and some calls — a stabbing or an active shooter, for example — will trigger an automatic launch.
Paris referenced a recent [incident, in mid-June,](https://keyt.com/news/ventura-county/2026/06/18/man-arrested-wednesday-after-entering-thousand-oaks-office-building-while-armed/) when police were dispatched after an armed man was seen in a Thousand Oaks office building.
“A deputy pilot would have had eyes on the scene before the call even went out on the radio,” he said. “He or she would have been able to direct deputies to the suspect and conclude the incident in a matter of minutes, instead of hours."
Camarillo is picking up 40% of the pilot costs, and the contract with Skydio's partner Axon, the same company that supplies the department's Tasers and body cameras, goes to the County Board of Supervisors in September.
The Ojai Valley News reports supervisors are set to [weigh a $6.9 million police drone contract](https://www.ojaivalleynews.com/news/county/county-supervisors-to-weigh-6-9-million-police-drone-contract-at-sept-1-meeting/article_a187a374-117e-485b-8e10-a40817f21c47.html) on Sept. 1. Installation is planned for late October or early November, with the program going live by mid-November.
Three residents asked the council to hold the money until a written policy and an itemized equipment list are made public.
Paris and Capt. Greg Gibson repeatedly said the program is not a surveillance tool: the drones carry no facial recognition or license plate readers, and flights will be posted to a public dashboard after roughly a 24-hour delay.
"I have no interest in collecting data," Paris said. "I have interest in solving crime."
The concern is not abstract in Ventura County. An audit earlier this year found out-of-state agencies had accessed the Sheriff's Office's Flock license plate reader data [more than 364,000 times](https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/news/flock-license-plate-readers-shared-data-with-out-of-state-federal-agencies/) without its knowledge. Paris said the drone footage will instead be stored under the same rules as body camera video, walled off from other agencies.
The council approved the funding anyway, with Councilmember Gutierrez noting that the completed policy would be the "third step" and pointing residents to the Board of Supervisors to press their concerns.
Paris said he would report the program's results, including response times, at his annual goals presentation.