SALINAS – The Salinas Police Department is asking the public to join them on Wednesday to go over, discuss and ask questions about the department’s annual report on military equipment usage.
The meeting, which will be held at the Salinas Rotunda from 6 to 6:30 p.m., is a requirement of Assembly Bill 481. The bill mandates local law enforcement agencies to present an annual report on its inventory of military equipment and the agency’s usage of it.
“Basically it’s a state mandated meeting where we go over all the military equipment that we possess or use in the police department and we’ll go over annual costs for these items and if they and if they were used or were not used,” said Sergeant Zach Dunagan of Salinas Police.
“It is open to the public. It is specifically set up for public transparency,” Dunagan said.
The bill was signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom in 2021 in hopes of maintaining dialogue between the public and local law enforcement.
Military equipment under AB 481 ranges from things like tear gas and rubber bullets to assault weapons and armored vehicles.
According to the report, “the continued access to and use of this equipment is vital in ensuring our officers have the appropriate tools necessary to deescalate situations, preserve life, ensure safety for all people and protect civil liberties.”
The report states that while certain military equipment like drones were frequently used by the agency, other equipment like assault rifles were not used at all.
That pattern of equipment use by the Salinas Police was consistent over the last four years the report has been released.
The Salinas Police Department has 10 different types of drones listed as military equipment, including drones with artificial intelligence capabilities, thermal imaging and the ability to fly indoors. Drones were used to collect photo and video evidence during investigations, search for missing persons and support high-risk missions. The relatively high frequency of drone use is consistent across the four years of annual reporting.
Weapons such as assault rifles and specialized high-caliber shotguns were not used at all in 2025. According to past reports, since 2022, assault weapons have only been used once during a nine-hour standoff with an active shooter in 2023.
While the annual report does not specify the nature of each case where the use of military equipment was authorized, it does state that no violations or complaints about the department’s usage were reported in 2025.
To read the full report visit: https://police.salinas.gov/assembly-bill-481/
Chris Hamilton is a California Local News fellow covering Salinas and the Salinas Valley for The Herald.
