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Advancing social justice and building power with working-class Vietnamese and II�. immigrant communities in Orange County. V � Garden Grove,CA 92843 I www.vietrise.org I general(avietrise.org I @vietriseoc August 19,2025 RE:Public Comment for Agenda Item#10:Annual Military Equipment Use Reports for 2022-23,2023-24,and 2024-25 Dear Mayor Amezcua and Santa Ana City Council Members, VietRISE writes in strong opposition to the Santa Ana Police Department's (SPD)request for$250,000 to purchase drone technology,which is included in their Annual Military Equipment Report(May 1,2024-April 30,2025). Recent reporting shows that the SAPD has not demonstrated the accountability,transparency,or necessity required to justify such an investment-particularly when weighed against the urgent needs of Santa Ana residents. As reported by the LAist,the SAPD has repeatedly failed to meet AB 481's yearly disclosure requirements in a timely and transparent manner.The absence of detail and community engagement in these reports shows,at best,negligence,and at worst,an intentional effort to obscure information from the public. Either case undermines trust and raises serious doubts about SAPD's capacity to operate a drone program responsibly. Even by SAPD's own reporting,drone usage has been minimal-used once in 2022,twice in 2023,and once in 2024-while nearly$31,000 annually has already been spent on maintaining militarized equipment.There is no clear or compelling evidence of community need for this expansion,and the proposed allocation is equivalent to what the City Council has dedicated to the city's Immigrant Legal Defense Fund-resources that directly protect Santa Ana residents from deportation. For the Vietnamese community in particular,that VietRISE primarily works with,including many immigrant and refugee families who have already endured government surveillance,war,and displacement,the expansion of militarized policing technologies evokes deep concern. Many Vietnamese residents in Santa Ana already live under constant anxiety of ICE enforcement and deportation;expanding police surveillance infrastructure would only intensify those harms.. Militarized equipment does not make our neighborhoods safer-it further isolates immigrant residents from public institutions they already struggle to trust. We also note the broader dangers.Across California,law enforcement has used military-grade technology to intimidate protesters and surveil communities.Even in Santa Ana,as the community took to the streets to peacefully protest the brutal abductions by ICE of immigrant residents,SAPD responded using military equipment as defined by AB 481.Specifically,they used pepper balls,tear gas,and rubber bullets to disperse protestors exercising their rights.In Santa Ana in 2 02 1,the Anaheim police department used military equipment(a stun grenadel against resident Brandon Lopez,and killed him after 22 shots in front of his family(notably,his cousin Councilmember Johnathan Hernandez). In addition,the California State Supreme Court recently struck down the City of Chula Vista's attempt to shield drone footage from public access, costing residents more than a million dollars in legal fees.The City of Los Angeles recently spent$32 million dollars on costs related to the ICE protests,and that does not cover the inevitable lawsuits from liabilities incurred during the LAPD's disproportionately violent response to peaceful protests.Santa Ana risks similar abuses and liabilities to other California jurisdictions,especially when they erroneously treat the people they