The Washington County Sheriff’s Office wants to put 13 drones on call across the county’s urban unincorporated areas, at a cost of $954,000 a year. That funding plan was pulled from the county board’s Sept. 15 work session a day before it was due to be discussed, and a draft board calendar now pencils it in for Dec. 1.
The figures come from a presentation the county finance department prepared for the Sept. 15 session. The meeting agenda marks the item “Pulled – 9-14-26” and does not give a reason.
The plan at a glance
- What: a countywide “drone as first responder” program, in which drones fly to certain 911 calls ahead of deputies.
- Size: 13 drones at seven launch sites, covering all of urban unincorporated Washington County.
- Cost: $954,000 a year under a 10-year cooperative contract with Axon, running from fiscal 2026-27 through 2034-35.
- Not included: a drone platform on the roof of the county’s Law Enforcement Center and insurance, which the presentation lists as extra costs.
- Next date: Dec. 1, on a board planning calendar printed Sept. 23 and marked “DRAFT,” which notes the item had not yet been entered into the county’s agenda system.
What the Aloha trial showed
The proposal grows out of a trial the sheriff’s office began in February with two drones at one site, covering a three-mile radius in Aloha. The drones were provided by Axon at no cost to the county, according to a June 2 report to commissioners.
In that report, the sheriff’s office said the two drones had made 719 flights and responded to 496 calls for service in two months. A drone was first on scene 39.8% of the time, and 6% of calls were cleared without sending a patrol deputy.
The most common use was overwatch (28.1%), which the slides tie to better awareness of a scene and officer safety. Next came locating a person or vehicle of interest (27.2%). Search and rescue made up 0.6%.
The office gave commissioners two examples. In one, a drone reached a reported robbery at a Target on Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway before patrol and found the suspect within minutes. In the other, a drone located a car reported by a caller as a possible impaired driver, and three of the five patrol units sent were canceled.
A public case followed in April. The Beaverton Valley Times reported that on April 2, after a deputy called off a pursuit in heavy traffic, drone operators located both a passenger who left the car and the driver, who was later arrested after a head-on crash.
How the price and the plan changed
The plan presented in June was larger and slightly more expensive than the one prepared for September. Comparing the two documents shows where it shifted:
| June 2 report | Sept. 15 presentation | |
|---|---|---|
| Drones | 15 | 13 |
| Launch sites | seven in the summary, five on one slide | seven |
| Yearly cost | $1 million | $954,000 |
| Enhanced Sheriff’s Patrol District share | 60% | $481,000 (about 50%) |
| General Fund share | 20% | $297,700 (about 31%) |
| Public Safety Local Option Levy share | 20% | $175,600 (about 18%) |
The percentages for September are our calculation from the dollar amounts in the presentation, which add up to about $954,000. They show the county’s General Fund carrying a larger share than in June, and the patrol district a smaller one.
The September slides also describe the deal as a “fixed price, 10-year contract.” If the price stays at $954,000 every year, the contract would total about $9.5 million, or roughly $73,000 per drone per year. That is our estimate; the presentation does not state a 10-year total.
Who else might chip in
Both documents say the sheriff’s office wants partner agencies to share costs. The June slides list a $200,000 “financial contribution” from Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue for 2026-27. The written June summary describes the same amount differently, as estimated cost savings of $200,000 a year plus infrastructure support from the fire district.
That summary also estimates $230,000 a year from the Beaverton Police Department through interagency support. Hillsboro Police is named on a June slide as an interagency partner, without a dollar figure.
The September presentation says other agencies are expected to join beginning in fiscal 2027-28 and that the sheriff’s office would work out long-term agreements with them. It calls the request “out of cycle,” because it arrived after the 2026-27 budget was built. For the first year, the sheriff’s office says it has identified money in its materials and personnel budgets, with any changes to come through a budget supplemental request if commissioners approve.
The limits on police drones
Oregon law restricts when police may fly drones. Under ORS 837.310 to 837.345, agencies need a warrant, an emergency, written consent or another listed exception, such as search and rescue or crash reconstruction. Information gathered outside those rules cannot be used in court.
When the trial began in February, sheriff’s spokesperson Cpl. David Huey told KPTV that the law bars deputies from using drones “to establish reasonable suspicion or probable cause.” The drones respond only to incidents already underway, Huey said.
The county is not the first in the area to try this model. Portland police, who began flying drones under a pilot approved in 2023, launched a first-responder trial with Gresham police in 2025.
None of the county documents reviewed for this story schedule a vote on the countywide plan; the Dec. 1 listing is a draft. Board agendas and staff reports are posted on the county’s CivicWeb portal.
Top image: Illustrative image of a drone launching from a rooftop dock; not a Washington County Sheriff’s Office drone. Photo: Chiam Naiditch, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped).
