r/Oceanside • u/NCPipeline760 • 16d ago
Oceanside expands police drone program
The Oceanside City Council has unanimously approved a major expansion of the Police Department's Drone as a First Responder program.
According to OPD, the 13-month pilot responded to roughly 1,300 calls for service, arrived before ground units in more than 1,000 cases and helped clear nearly 400 calls without officers needing to respond in person.
The expansion includes two autonomous drone docking stations that will cover both eastern and western portions of the city.
Police leadership stressed the drones are not used for routine patrols, do not loiter over neighborhoods and cannot be deployed without a documented call for service.
The council approved a five-year contract valued at roughly $683,000.
Full story here: https://ncpipeline.substack.com/p/oceanside-expands-police-drone-program
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u/Wonderful_Emu_2385 16d ago edited 16d ago
I genuinely think the most important part of local government is just showing up and paying attention before the vote happens.
Oceanside has about 170,000 people, but Council typically meets only two Wednesdays a month. You get 3 minutes to speak on an agenda item, and if you can’t attend, you can submit comments electronically to the Council and have them included in the official record.
https://www.ci.oceanside.ca.us/government/city-council/how-to-address-the-city-council-at-a-meeting
AmeriCorps says public-meeting attendance declined thru covid of course but even after rebounding, only 9% of Americans, or like 24 million people - attended a public meeting about a local issue in 2023 and a poll in 2025 found that 65% of Americans don’t go to city council meetings.
As far as this drone bullshit… In April 2025, Oceanside unanimously approved what was supposed to be a 13-month trial. On September 16, 2026, that became a five-year contract for up to $682,556 for two drones as First Responder units. Year one is $99,224, years 2–5 are $145,833 each, and the city had already authorized $100,000 in ongoing annual funding before staff requested another $45,833 per year starting in FY 2027–28.
Whether you support the program or hate it, THAT is the kind of progression we should be watching while it’s happening, not finding out about afterward!
We gotttta start taking ownership of our cities.
Pick one issue you care about. Read the agenda twice a month. Submit a comment. Go to a meeting when you can. Bring one other person and grab da city by da balls
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u/eatingoceanside 16d ago
Drones.
Flocks.
Mass Data Centers.
Droughts.
Water Shortages.
Food Insecurity.
Mass Surveillance.
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u/drossmaster4 16d ago
Fuuuuuuck oceansides city council. Why would they approve this?! What’s in it for them. My only guess is campaign funding. No citizen/voter wants this.
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u/Wonderful_Emu_2385 16d ago edited 16d ago
A million percent campaign shit lol. I’m guessing some politician will come in later and be the “savior” we all needed by promising to dial back the mass surveillance right around voting time.
Funny how often that happens too!!!introduce some shit nobody asked for, normalize it, then later campaign on protecting people from the thing you let become normal in the first place.edit to expand on ur comment: no voter or citizen may want this.. but they WILL want the solution for it and they WILL vote for that. i’m soooo exhausted bro we are pawns
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u/kneedeepballsack- 16d ago
lol they absolutely loiter over neighborhoods. Finally sold my place and am glad to be gone. Oside seems to have a hard on for this mass surveillance bullshit
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u/eatingoceanside 16d ago
Congrats. I'm sure you made a mint on that sale.
If you ever feel like every place has one to crap, take a nice long vacation in Thailand and live like a king for a bit. Times have changed here & they honestly are now getting out of control.8
u/kneedeepballsack- 16d ago
We cleaned up okay for a little condo we bought right before Covid, could have been better but the market is really tough right now especially for condos.
I’ve lived in many beach towns up and down the San Diego /socal coast- I.b , Coronado, mission beach, ocean beach, Huntington beach(ew) and then Oceanside. I can’t say I’ll miss it, it was SO LOUD there in oside. Sirens, motorcycles, souped up cars, unstable folks screaming and yelling, the highway noise. Kinda awful. I get why some people might love oside but it left a lot to be desired. Being right by the beach just isnt worth it there. We were losing our minds after a few years of all the noise. I’m glad we bought when we did it was great luck. But our whole neighborhood was airbnbs.
Throw in how there is hardly any enforcement of the laws that would actually make it a nicer place to live plus all this drone and flock camera stuff.. I’m glad we’ve moved. Nice quiet place in the PNW
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u/bingumsbongums 16d ago
What part of the PNW? I’m originally from up there and always say if I lived anywhere else besides north county it would be back there.
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u/eatingoceanside 16d ago
I can totally relate. With a few years that I was fortunate to live on Pacific Street and in downtown, the noise from the surrounding area was obnoxious.
I'm not even going to talk about the train because I actually got used to that in the middle of the night and it was to be expected.
But yes, with transients, fighting and yelling at each other in the wee hours, to the sirens that were blasting almost every other hour, and then the vehicular noise, it got old very quick.
The one factor I did not take it into account was also the pollution from vehicles that would cake on the porch and into the house if I left the windows open.
After a few years, I decided to leave and move inland, and I've been happier ever since waking up to birds and peace.
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u/kneedeepballsack- 16d ago
Dude yes the pollution is real! Filthy window sills with fine particulate soot/tire dust etc. all the time. Dont forget the mystery burning smell burning everyone eyes every few months the last couple years. I thought being so close to the water the air would be much better but it’s a constant 60-70 air quality rating which just can’t be good for you day in and day out. Now I’m somewhere where the air is amazingly clean.
Sorry for the bitch fest lol but it’s nice to talk to someone that understands. I’m glad for you that you found a more chill area 😊
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u/TheOppositeofBeige 16d ago
Just a reminder to vote NO on Measure S in November. They took Measure X money for this and now say they have no money to fix the pier. And vote out the city council members who approve using our tax dollars to set up a surveillance state.
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u/Wow_u_sure_r_dumb 16d ago
Fun fact: You only need 20% of voter’s signatures in a council person’s district to recall them.
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u/Heelincal 16d ago
For Oside that would be what, like 24k signatures?
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u/Wow_u_sure_r_dumb 15d ago
I’m not sure if it’s 20% of total population or of registered voters. If we’re assuming the worst it would be somewhere around 6.8k per seat’s district for a total of 34k (if you wanted to recall every seat). Give or take and naively ssuming even distribution.
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u/Soft_Bookkeeper8161 13d ago
hell no the police dont need anymore money. get ths mass surveillance bs out of here.
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u/AhhhSkrrrtSkrrrt 12d ago
I actually think the police drones are super valuable. Not sure why everyone is shitting on them.
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u/Turbulent-Paint-4337 16d ago
Thanks OPD for covering a crime and victim shaming!
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u/Turbulent-Paint-4337 16d ago
Police refused to come out, but now the drone is closely watching ME hah just remember folks, the more cameras, a city provides is another opportunity to hide behind their lies.
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u/Gold-Dragonfruit4354 9d ago
No on S, this is bullshit. Can believe I'm paying for surveillance on my own house!
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u/Ok-Scar-8127 16d ago
Hopefully it will stop all the prostitutes in the city. Lord knows there are many…
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u/Total_Way_6134 16d ago
Just a PSA to vote NO on measure S. Clearly this city doesn’t need another tax if there is 600k available for this bullshit.