Chula Vista seeks CA Supreme Court review of ruling on police drone footage

The city of Chula Vista is asking the California Supreme Court Thursday to review a lower court's ruling that found not all drone footage captured by its police department is exempt from public disclosure.

The legal dispute over police drone footage stems from a lawsuit filed by Arturo Castanares, publisher of La Prensa San Diego, who sought copies of one month's worth of CVPD drone recordings under the California Public Records Act, but was rebuffed by the city.

A San Diego Superior Court judge agreed with the city's position that the footage cannot be released because it falls under an exemption that allows the footage to remain withheld because it is investigatory material.

However, the 4th District Court of Appeal ruled otherwise last month, finding that while much of the drone footage could be exempt, it was incorrect to rule that all the video footage could be considered tied to investigations.

In a statement released Wednesday announcing its request for state Supreme Court review, the city said it originally declined Castanares' request because releasing all drone footage "might have violated individual privacy rights."

The statement also says city employees would have needed to review and redact all footage to remove the faces, license plates, and other personal identifying information of people captured in the videos. Those efforts would have been "time-consuming and costly" as it "would have required the city to dedicate the time of one full-time employee for approximately 229 full workdays," according to the city.

The city further said that its decision not to release the footage was "not due to any desire for secrecy or to avoid accountability, but to avoid losing a program due to excessive costs and risks to the public's privacy," and that the appellate court's opinion "may compromise significant privacy concerns of members of the public in this case, or in future requests."

Chula Vista police began exploring the use of drones in 2015 and a pilot program launched three years later that saw drones deployed to 911 calls and other emergencies.

In 2021, the police department's drone program became the first in the nation to receive authorization from the Federal Aviation Administration to launch drones from anywhere in the city.