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Background <br />On September 30, 2021, the California Legislature enacted Assembly Bill (AB) 481. The legislation <br />intended to increase transparency and community involvement in a local law enforcement agency's <br />purchase and use of military equipment, as defined in California Government Code Section 7070. In <br />addition to section 7070, AB 481 created California Government Code Sections 7071 and 7072. <br />California Government Code Section 7071 requires a law enforcement agency to obtain approval of <br />the governing body by an ordinance adopting a military equipment use policy at a regular meeting of <br />the governing body. On May 3, 2022, at the regularly scheduled City Council meeting, the Santa Ana <br />Police Department presented our Military Equipment Policy (Policy 707) to the Council and <br />Community. At the May 17, 2022, City Council Meeting, the Council adopted the ordinance by a vote <br />of 4 to 2 (1 member absent). <br />Beginning on May 8, 2022, the Police Department began tracking its use of defined military <br />equipment to generate an Annual Military Equipment Use Report. The information contained in this <br />report is to inform our community regarding why and how we utilized the defined military <br />equipment entrusted to us. This report includes data from May 1, 2024, to April 30, 2025. <br />Summary of Equipment Use <br />During the time frame of this report, defined military equipment was deployed to field -based <br />incidents thirty (30) times and to community events eleven (11) times. Of the thirty deployments, <br />four (4) involved the Department's Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) Team, where specific <br />criteria had to be met before the SWAT Team was activated/utilized. <br />Each of the thirty field deployments involved incidents where the defined equipment provided the <br />community and our officers with a higher level of safety than would have been possible had the <br />equipment not been utilized. For example, during each incident, the suspect(s) involved were either <br />believed to be armed, in a position of tactical advantage, or both. The chart below illustrates the types <br />of defined equipment deployed during the reporting period, along with the frequency of deployment <br />for each piece of equipment. While a total of thirty incidents required the deployment of defined <br />equipment, several of the incidents required multiple pieces of equipment, which is why the total <br />number indicated in the chart exceeds thirty. <br />Page 1 <br />