Redwood City police set to purchase military equipment, drones

“Nearly all of these tools improve the department’s ability to de-escalate critical incidents and resolve them peacefully, typically with little or no use of force,” Redwood City police Sgt. Jesus Castro said. 

The department is looking to establish its own drone program, which would include developing policy to address privacy concerns, storage times and acceptable uses. The department expects to spend $60,000 on four outdoor and two indoor drones, and to allot $27,000 on training. 

Currently, the department participates in a mutual aid program with nearby cities to borrow equipment when needed, but this cannot always be accommodated in an efficient manner, or at all. 

“Having our own equipment and a policy that is developed by Redwood City and has gone through the [Police Advisory Committee] and approved by the council, it belongs to us now and we can control that,” Mayor Jeff Gee said. 

The Police Department did not request additional funding for the equipment and will be paying for these items with a grant it obtained from the Citizens Option for Public Safety Program.

Espinoza-Garnica said they would like to see further reports on where the deployment of special response teams primarily occurred and how that related to national trends of overpolicing in neighborhoods with more people from various racial and ethnic backgrounds. 

“I have never voted in favor of military equipment and it’s largely because I have a great concern of SWATs disproportionately being deployed into communities of color and not being used responsibly,” Espinoza-Garnica said. 

The vice mayor also questioned if the police department was still maintaining use of the city’s “disproportionate amount” of MP5 rifles, which are older rifles used in special response teams. 

Castro said the Police Department maintains use of these rifles as well as M4 rifles in its special response teams to have a variety of options that could be alternatively beneficial in different environments or critical situations. 

“For example, if a suspect is wearing a ballistic vest, that’s maybe something to consider on why we want more higher powered firearms,” Castro said. 

The department has upped the amount of training on reaching proficiency with both kinds of rifles, Castro said. However, the department still hasn’t met training standards set by the National Tactical Officers Association, which suggests 92 hours of training as the norm. Staffing and overtime costs have limited the amount of increased training efforts they can provide, he added. 

In addition to multiple comments from the public voicing support for the police to purchase the desired equipment, Councilmember Diane Howard voiced her appreciation for the detailed explanation from staff on the necessity for each of the pieces requested. 

“These aren’t things that you just said you wanted to have, these are things that you know can make a real impact on doing a better, more efficient and safer job,” Howard said. 

The approval for these items sends a message that the city is ready to address crime, Gee said. 

“For those thinking about doing harm in our city, knowing that we have some of this equipment, maybe they won’t come to our city,” Gee said. “Maybe they’ll pick some place else that doesn’t have this equipment.”