Drone Surveillance Lawsuit Curbs Warrantless Flights Over Homes In Sonoma County

SONOMA COUNTY, CA — Sonoma County will restrict code enforcement drone flights over homes and surrounding areas under a settlement with residents who accused the county of violating their privacy.

The settlement bars Sonoma County Code Enforcement from using drones to monitor or record homes and surrounding areas without a warrant, except in limited circumstances, including emergencies or cases in which a property owner consents.

“Today’s settlement agreement will protect everyone’s right to privacy in and around their homes,” said Nick Hidalgo, a senior attorney with the ACLU Foundation of Northern California.

“For too long, the county concealed these unlawful searches from the people they spied on, the community, and the media.”

Code enforcement officers used low-flying drones to record homes, fenced yards, swimming pools, hot tubs, areas beneath awnings, and spaces visible through curtainless windows, according to the ACLU.

The agency used some of the footage as evidence in code enforcement cases that produced millions of dollars in fines, the organization said. The county did not admit wrongdoing.

The ACLU Foundation of Northern California and O’Melveny & Myers LLP sued Sonoma County, Permit Sonoma, its code enforcement service, and officials who operated the program in June 2025.

The lawsuit represented three longtime Sonoma County residents.

The complaint alleged that the county launched the drone program six years earlier to find unpermitted cannabis grows in remote rural areas but later used it to pursue unrelated code violations. The lawsuit asked Sonoma County Superior Court to stop warrantless aerial surveillance of homes and private areas.

Under the settlement, Permit Sonoma must notify residents when a drone has surveilled their homes. The county must delete drone footage 30 days after collecting it unless the footage forms part of an investigation. In those cases, the county must delete the footage within 30 days after closing the investigation.

The county also agreed not to share images of homes or surrounding areas with third parties unless the law requires disclosure.

Permit Sonoma must present a revised drone policy to the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors for public comment. The county must also provide drone flight logs to the ACLU for two years.

Plaintiff Nichola Schmitz, who is Deaf, learned in October 2023 that a county drone had hovered above and recorded her rural farm without a warrant. She could not hear the drone and discovered it only after someone else on the property pointed it out.

Schmitz ran to her bedroom and closed its large windows because she feared the drone would look inside. She later worried that it had recorded her while she was naked or wrapped in a towel after bathing.

“No one should have to be afraid to open their blinds or step into their own backyard because a government drone might be watching,” Schmitz said in a press release.

The county later fined Schmitz thousands of dollars over alleged code violations and placed a lien on her property, relying partly on evidence collected during the flight. Schmitz spent $25,000 for a contractor to correct an alleged grading violation and still faced $10,000 in fines for an unpermitted shed.

Forty years ago, the California Supreme Court prohibited the government from conducting warrantless aerial surveillance of homes and surrounding areas, according to the ACLU.

The settlement reaffirms that protection as powerful drones make government surveillance cheaper and easier, the organization said.