Military equipment.

A new Section 7073.5 is added to the Government Code, expanding the bill from a single-topic local government ordinance cleanup into a bill that also regulates law enforcement drone purchases.

Law enforcement agencies are prohibited from purchasing unmanned, remotely piloted, powered aerial or ground vehicles unless the vehicle has an option to turn off non-essential data collection programs, or the agency uses an American data storage company for all collected data (including video and photos), or both.

The drone purchase restriction applies only to vehicles purchased on or after January 1, 2027. Agencies may continue to own and possess drones purchased before that date without restriction.

Defines 'American data storage company' as a US-formed business entity headquartered in the US (or DC) that provides digital data storage services, has adopted security measures against unauthorized access/modification/destruction, and maintains dedicated servers or hard drives located in the United States.

The original Section 50022.4 amendment remains but is renumbered as Section 2 (was Section 1). The language changes are nonsubstantive grammar fixes: 'which that may appear' becomes 'that may appear,' and a garbled sentence about penalty clauses is cleaned up.

The fiscal committee designation changes from 'no' to 'yes,' indicating the new drone restriction section now requires a fiscal impact analysis, likely due to potential costs for agencies to comply with data storage or vehicle modification requirements.

The amendment to Section 50022.4 of the Government Code (regarding adoption by reference of penalty clauses in local ordinances) was removed entirely, narrowing the bill to a single subject: law enforcement drone data storage requirements.

A new phased compliance schedule was added: vehicles purchased between January 1, 2026 and January 1, 2027 must use an American data storage company; vehicles owned or possessed before January 1, 2026 must transition to an American data storage company after their current data housing contract expires.

A new provision requires that contracts with American data storage companies must prohibit the company from using, selling, renting, trading, or otherwise sharing collected data with any other entity, and explicitly states the data remains under the sole ownership and control of the law enforcement agency.

The term 'unmanned' was replaced with 'uncrewed' throughout the bill to align with updated terminology for remotely piloted vehicles.

The fiscal committee designation changed from 'no' to 'yes,' indicating the bill now requires fiscal committee review, likely due to the new phased requirements affecting existing contracts and budgets.