In Groundbreaking Case, Court Rules that Police Have to Share Drone Footage with the Public

A recent court case brought against the Chula Vista Police Department (CVPD) could have major implications for what law enforcement can and can’t do with the drone footage it collects.

At its heart, the case is about whether police departments can keep their drone videos to themselves, or whether they belong to the public.

The ruling, in the end, was that the CVPD couldn’t hold back its footage—it had to give at least some of it up.

Credit: Chula Vista Police Department

Why Did the Chula Vista PD Get Taken to Court?

In 2021, a Chula Vista resident named Arturo Castañares filed a California Public Records Act request in which he asked for all the police drone footage from the month of March, 2021, representing about 370 flights.

In making the request Castañares wasn’t acting as a private citizen. He owns and publishes a bilingual newspaper called La Prensa San Diego, and he was asking for the footage in his capacity as a journalist.

Either way, the CVPD denied the request, saying that the footage was exempt. The California law has an exemption for investigative material that allows it to remain confidential, and the Department’s reasoning was that this exemption extended to all of its drone footage.

After the first denial, Castañares changed his request. Instead of all the footage, he now asked the CVPD to exclude any that was connected with ongoing or pending investigations, so long as it provided a log of the withheld footage.

But the CVPD said that all of its drone footage was investigative—they wouldn’t release any of it.

In response, Castañares sued them.

Credit: Chula Vista Police Department

At first, things didn’t go well for Castañares. In April of 2023, a San Diego County Superior Court found in favor of the CVPD, siding with the its view that all of its drone footage was investigative, and therefore exempt from the California Public Records Act law.

But Castañares appealed that decision. On appeal, the case made its way to the 4th District Court of Appeal—and he won.

We conclude, based on the record before us, the trial court’s broad ruling that all drone video footage, as a matter of law, is categorically exempt because the drones are only dispatched in response to 911 calls was [an] error.

– Court of Appeal opinion

As part of its decision, the appeals court sent the case back to the original trial court so it could determine how many—if any—of the 370 videos Castañares requested were not related to police investigations, and therefore free to be released.

Why Does This Case Matter?

The Chula Vista case is the first time a police department has been forced to share its drone footage in response to a public records request.

This is a big deal, because it could set a precedent for how future cases like this are decided. And it could also influence how police departments view drone footage in general. A police department doesn’t have to be sued to start proactively making at least some of its drone footage available to the public.

The case is also noteworthy because the CVPD’s drone program is iconic. The Department first started using drones in its work back in 2015—before the FAA’s Part 107 rules were issued, and before most other public safety agencies had started using them.

In 2017, the Chula Vista PD joined the UAS Integration Pilot Program with the City of San Diego, through which it was allowed to test BVLOS and other types of flying prohibited by the FAA’s Part 107 rules. Building on those tests, the CVPD then became the first police department to launch a Drone as First Responder program.

Through all of its drone development, the CVPD has been held up as a shining example of how to integrate drones into law enforcement work. It strives to be transparent in how it uses drones, and to meet public fears about surveillance head on.

The Department even has a dashboard where anyone can see where and when it has flown.

This is all to say that, in this court case, who it was brought against matters as much as the outcome itself.

When the Chula Vista PD is sued and loses, other police departments with drone programs pay attention. This case could have reverberations for years to come, redefining how police departments view their drone footage, as well as shaping how citizens view their rights when it comes to accessing that footage.