Increased drone surveillance of illegal July 4th fireworks led to $100K fine

The Sacramento Fire Department issued 70 citations on July 4, totaling $300,000 in fines. But the department was also looking to assign additional citations on July 2 and July 3. Sylvia told KCRA 3 that the department had previously issued a $1 million fine to a single individual in 2025.

In Central California, the Salinas Fire Department posted a promotional sizzle reel to Instagram featuring drone footage of various illegal fireworks activities and warning that it expected to issue nearly 100 citations from the Fourth of July weekend. The department first began training a dozen of its firefighters to become certified drone pilots in 2022, Monterey County Now reported.

The trend of first responders deploying drones has accelerated significantly since 2025, when the US Federal Aviation Administration reworked its regulations to enable faster approvals of waivers enabling police and fire departments to fly drones beyond the operator’s visual line of sight.

Unleash the drone sizzle reels

Several police departments in Southern California also deployed drone teams for the first time in 2026 to identify the locations of illegal fireworks activity. The Anaheim Police Department used drones to help issue 40 citations and confiscate 2,500 pounds of illegal fireworks, according to The Orange County Register.

The newspaper also confirmed that the Santa Ana Police Department deployed drones for the first time this year. The drones assisted the department in issuing 107 citations—though the citations were issued to property owners at addresses where illegal fireworks activity took place rather than to specific perpetrators.

The Santa Ana Police Department further claimed that its drone operators assisted in the seizure of nearly 1,300 pounds of illegal fireworks in a promotional reel posted to social media, which played the “Bad Boys” music of the American TV show Cops as the soundtrack.

Meanwhile, the La Habra Police Department posted a less flashy video to Facebook showing a drone video of a person lighting a firework in the middle of a residential street. It described its drone unit as helping with the issuance of “numerous citations” and leading to arrests in some cases for fireworks violations.