City Council gives the nod to more military equipment

Council remains divided on purchases by Chico PD
by Yucheng Tang
Posted April 16, 2025

The City Council voted 4–3 to approve the Chico Police Department’s proposed purchase of more than half a million dollars in additional military equipment.

photo by Yucheng Tang
Chico’s Margaret Swick spoke at the April 15 City Council meeting, suggesting that the money allocated for military equipment could go elsewhere.

The acquisitions will include three drones, four remote-controlled cars, a launcher that can fire projectiles, two sniper rifles to replace two old ones, 15 police patrol rifles, and three incident command vehicles that can provide a mobile on-site platform for command, control and communications during major incidents.

The total estimated cost is $562,955, not including maintenance fees, according to Chico PD’s military equipment policy.

“Your continued approval will ensure that the community’s police department stands ready to protect them while also keeping your police officers safe,” Police Chief Billy Aldridge told councilmembers prior to the vote.

Aldridge also proposed purchasing a Boston Dynamics Agile Mobile Robot, contingent on securing grant funding.

“The purpose of those,” Aldridge said, “is they have multiple options for sensors on those – bomb detection, chemical detection, camera systems, audio systems – [so] you can put them into places where you wouldn’t necessarily want to put a human.

photo by Yucheng Tang
Chief Billy Aldridge at the March 31 community engagement meeting on the topic of military equipment.

“And it’s a robot,” he said, “so no danger to a human in what they’re doing.”

Several members of the community expressed their concern about the City’s purchase of military equipment during the public comment session.

“The goal of AB 481 is for elected officials to curb and regulate the militarizing of our police,” said Chico resident Margaret Swick. “It is not to celebrate the growth of a military-style arsenal,” she said.

Assembly Bill 481 was passed by the California Legislature and signed into law in 2021, in part to “give strong consideration to the public’s welfare, safety, civil rights, and civil liberties” the text states. The law calls for “meaningful public input” prior to the purchase of what it defines as military equipment, and requires California law enforcement agencies to obtain approval from their governing body for the funding, acquisition, or use of that equipment.

“Chico has plenty of issues we could solve by redirecting money to perhaps painting and improving crosswalks so that children, bicycles, and pedestrians are safe,” Swick added.

Diane Suzuki-Brobeck, a member of Concerned Community for Justice, voiced concern about the potential use of the equipment on peaceful protesters. She asked Aldridge to make a public statement “reassuring us that Chico PD will follow the law, … which restricts law enforcement’s use of less-lethal munitions to disperse protests, and also increases the frequency of mandatory use-of-force reporting.”

Councilmember Bryce Goldstein echoed her sentiment. “I’m also concerned in our current political climate about the potential for military equipment being used against people exercising their First Amendment rights,” she said.

Goldstein added that she supports public safety but wants to “make sure that we’re investing our taxpayer dollars into proactive public safety measures.”

Councilmember Tom van Overbeek expressed support for the purchase of the equipment: “My take on this … is that almost every one of those items, it protects … the police officers, and it protects citizens, because it gives you (the police) more non-lethal options when you’re dealing with a difficult situation.”

Councilmember and former Chico Police Chief Mike O’Brien said this equipment “mostly is defensive in nature and designed to save lives.”

After O’Brien motioned to approve all the items requested by Aldridge, Councilmember Katie Hawley introduced a substitute motion to remove several items from the acquisition list.

They included one of the three incident command vehicles, the police patrol rifles that “were only used once in 2024,” and the Boston Dynamics robot.

“Boston Dynamics is a $75,000 piece of equipment,” Hawley told ChicoSol on March 20. “Even if that is awarded with grant funds, upkeep and maintenance of that would be extremely expensive and specialized. It is an erroneous spending allowance in my opinion.”

Hawley’s substitute motion failed 3–4, and O’Brien’s motion passed 4–3. Mayor Kasey Reynolds, Vice Mayor Dale Bennett and van Overbeek voted in favor of O’Brien’s motion.

During the March 31 community forum held by Chico PD to collect public opinions about the military equipment purchases, Aldridge said, “I disagree with the terminology that they use in this law (AB 481), because nothing that we have in our inventory is truly military equipment. It makes it sound like you went to the military and said, ‘Hey, can I buy your tank?’ But that’s not the case.”

According to Chico PD, most of the “military equipment” in their possession is commercially available and made for civilian or law enforcement use.

AB 481 designates in its text a dozen categories of items as “military equipment,” including any firearm or firearm accessory designed to launch explosive projectiles, “Flashbang” grenades and Humvees.

Aldridge specifically addressed concerns over the use of drones — one of the items mentioned in the law that Chico PD utilizes.

screenshot from Chico PD website
This log shows the path of a Chico PD drone, when it was used and a basic description of the nature of the call.

Anytime they’re launched, their flights are logged into so-called “air data,” which is posted on the police department’s website.

“Typically, they’ll do a report on why they flew that drone,” Aldridge said. “Then it goes through a review process for that supervisor, and then a manager who will review it, [and] say this was in policy or not in policy.

“Obviously, if we find someone out of policy,” Adridge said, “then we start the investigation into why they violated that policy.”

Yucheng Tang is a California Local News Fellow reporting for ChicoSol.

3 thoughts on “City Council gives the nod to more military equipment”

  1. thank you for important budget coverage!!! The city has spent millions on dispersing homeless camps and offering nothing in return. every homeless person in butte county could’ve been given the best tiny home available in an agreeable location for less money. When the City allows fast food and other non local corporations to take up every available property because it brings in more tax revenue, they sure as fuck better not be spending it on increasing the already bloated budget of the already plenty capable of violence Chico PD

  2. At the April 15th Chico City Council meeting, the tag team of Aldridge and O’Brien wrestled more taxpayer money away from constructive projects and funneled the money into the ever-increasing arsenal of lethal weapons that allegedly “protect and serve” the public. O’Brien stated that the weapons save lives; however, during the three years that O’Brien was Chico PD chief, his “peace officers” killed three civilians with the use of traditional lethal weapons such as pistols, dogs, and tasers. AB 481 is about transparency and reasonableness, not a blank check to purchase more and more weapons- which will be used on civilians.

    I am thankful that several councilmembers spoke rationally about escalating the CPD arsenal of technical equipment. Many weapons will need special training and maintenance, and these new military-style weapons will quickly become obsolete when new lethal weapons come online. Aldridge did not disclose those expenses.

  3. Though I recognize the difficulties Chico Police face in dealing with the public, but I wonder how terrified the Chico Police Department is of hordes of Chico citizens attaching them that they are still short of supplies to combat us. I would love to see a complete inventory of every weapon currently owned by both the Police Department and the Officers themselves before I awarded over half a million dollars. Where do they store all this crap? Is our City Police force so destitute of means to protect themselves as they serve the community that they come regularly crying for more and more protection? I frankly doubt that. I bet they have plenty already. Perhaps because our local officers have been forced to demean themselves to the point of harassing our city’s unsheltered citizens, shuffling them from one constitutional required refuge to another, that these officers consider all citizens as potential targets? I doubt that too. It seems that another $562,955 creates just another divisive and violent toy box for officers to play with. A public policy that further requires our professional Public Servants to “eat cake”. I blame the majority of one current city council for all this non-sense. A waste of time and money and actions that insults, shames, and discredits our Public Servants, our Officers, our Citizens and our City. Our town deserves better common sense than this, and so do our Officers in the field.

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