Urban Area Security Initiative, Bay Area Drone Documents

To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the California's Sunshine Amendment (Cal. Const. Art. I, § 3(b)), I hereby request the following records:

1. any requests for proposals, proposals submitted by vendors, contracts, budgets or cost allocations for the purchase and/or use of aerial drones, UAs, UAVs, and UASs (hereinafter “drones”);

2. any policies, guidelines, manuals and/or instructions on department use of drones, including on the legal process required (such as a warrant or court order), if any, before operating a drone;

3. any departmental records concerning this department’s use of drones now or plans to use drones in the future including:

a. the types of investigations or instances in which this department is using or plans to use drones, or how it plans to support, manage or oversee the usage of drones by another department or office;

b. policies, guidelines, manuals and/or instructions on storage requirements or procedures for video or static images obtained through use of drones, including retention times;

c. the altitude at which drones can or do fly;

d. drones’ ability to carry weapons.

I also request that, if appropriate, fees be waived as I believe this request is in the public interest. The requested documents will be made available to the general public free of charge as part of the public information service at MuckRock.com, processed by a representative of the news media/press and is made in the process of news gathering and not for commercial usage.

In the event that fees cannot be waived, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 10 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Drone Watch

Dear Ms. Goley:

Thank you for your quick response on this matter.

MuckRock News has already received documents relating to aerial drones (UAVs/UAs/UASs) and the Bay Area Urban Area Security Initiative. Specifically, San Francisco Police Department released the following project proposal from FY2012, "Remote Pilot Video Camera": https://muckrock.s3.amazonaws.com/foia_documents/RPVC_Proposal.pdf.

Please release any documents relating to this "Remote Pilot Video Camera" project, including emails, memos, reports, meeting minutes and presentation slides that may have accompanied the proposal. Please also all release similar project proposals, contracts and reports that the Bay Area UASI has received or produced related to aerial drones, UAVs, UAs or UASs.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 10 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Shawn Musgrave

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on Aug. 7, 2012. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.

Thank you for your help.