Redmond, Oregon PD Acquires Six Skydio Drones Under Five-Year Financing Plan

Redmond, Oregon PD Acquires Six Skydio Drones Under Five-Year Financing Plan

The city of Redmond, Oregon is replacing its active DJI police drone fleet with six Skydio units — and paying for them the same way many departments finance patrol cars: through a five-year installment contract.

The City Council approved the agreement with Axon on June 23, valued at a total of $410,762. The police department cited an aging fleet as one reason for the switch, but the larger driver is the federal ban compelling U.S. law enforcement agencies to move away from Chinese-made DJI hardware and toward NDAA-compliant alternatives such as Skydio. The contract also stipulates that all six drones will be replaced with new units at the 30-month mark.

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Procuring Drones Like Leasing Patrol Cars

The structure of the contract is as notable as its price tag. Rather than writing a single check for six drones, Redmond is committing to a five-year, $410,762 agreement with Axon. The first two years of payments will be covered by $100,000 in construction savings from the city's new public safety building.

The most striking feature is the mid-contract refresh clause: at month 30, all six drones will be swapped out for new models. This signals that the department anticipates rapid hardware obsolescence.

Department Public Information Officer April Huey was candid about the reasons for retiring the current fleet. She described the existing drones as nearing the end of their useful life and framed the purchase as a necessary step to keep pace with technology. "Drones are technology tools, and staying current is critical," Huey said.

For smaller cities with constrained budgets, this financing approach has clear appeal. Spreading $410,000 over five years makes the expenditure easier to absorb in annual budget cycles — much like a lease. The trade-off is a long-term commitment: Redmond is now locked into Axon and its refresh schedule regardless of how the broader technology landscape evolves.

It is worth noting that the "obsolescence" framing deserves some scrutiny. The component most prone to wear on a drone is the battery, and battery replacement is inexpensive. Aging hardware alone was not what was driving the fleet retirement.

Redmond PD had been operating DJI drones. The department's drone program page showed DJI aircraft launching from a rooftop DJI Dock — an automated system capable of deploying drones without an on-site pilot. That infrastructure is now set to be decommissioned.

The real catalyst is political. Since the federal ban took effect last December, U.S. law enforcement agencies have been required to phase out Chinese-made DJI hardware in favor of NDAA-compliant platforms like Skydio. DroneXL previously reported in March on the financial impact that ban was having on agencies across Oregon.

The cost of compliance is significant. Nationwide, a DJI drone priced at roughly $7,000 is being replaced by a U.S.-made equivalent costing close to $25,000 — and cities are typically financing rather than purchasing outright. A federal policy directive has effectively transformed what Redmond once owned at low cost into a high-cost service it now leases on an ongoing basis.

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65 Operational Missions in the Past Year

According to the Bend Bulletin, Redmond has operated drones since 2019, though the program has remained relatively modest in scale. Data provided by Huey to the City Council shows the department conducted 84 drone deployments in 2025, of which 65 were operational missions and 19 were training flights.

Those missions reflect typical local use cases. In June, officers used a drone to search for a missing juvenile; in a previous incident, a drone located a hiding suspect in the rocky terrain of Dry Canyon. Three school resource officers are currently certified to fly.

Huey told the council that drones are the most effective tool for patrolling Redmond's urban core and surrounding public lands — terrain that would require significant officer time to cover on foot. The aerial advantage lies in coverage: a single airborne operator can monitor an area that would otherwise require multiple officers on the ground.

Central Oregon's geography amplifies that practical value. Redmond sits in high desert terrain, with canyon systems and vast public land where a missing person or fleeing suspect can be extremely difficult to track. Drones that can be airborne within minutes have materially improved outcomes in the search-and-rescue and fugitive-apprehension scenarios the department regularly cites.

One aspect that sets Redmond apart from departments that have faced community pushback over surveillance concerns: its publicly available drone policy explicitly states that the city does not store any drone footage on third-party servers and has no data-sharing agreements with external agencies.

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Axon and Skydio: The Forces Behind This Purchase

The contract counterparty is not the drone manufacturer directly — it is Axon, the company best known for Tasers and body cameras. Axon has been integrating Skydio's autonomous drones into a Drone-as-First-Responder (DFR) package sold to law enforcement agencies. Skydio reports that it now works with more than 600 public safety agencies.

This bundled sales model is increasingly the norm in U.S. law enforcement procurement. Over the past several years, Axon has systematically added drones to existing contracts that already cover body cameras and digital evidence management software. For a buyer like Redmond, working with a single vendor is considerably simpler than integrating hardware and software from three separate suppliers.

That convenience, however, is also a lock-in mechanism. Once a department's body cameras and drones both run through the same company, replacing either component becomes costly and operationally complex. Axon has deliberately engineered this stickiness, and Redmond has now deepened its dependency.

The specific Skydio model being procured was not disclosed in the reporting, and the department has not published a per-unit cost. What is clear is that the same vendor selling this city its body cameras is now also selling it eyes in the sky.

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DroneXL Editorial Perspective

The real story in Redmond is not the drones themselves — it is the payment structure. A five-year contract with a 30-month refresh is a subscription, not a purchase.

Redmond is locked into a cycle: drones age, drones get replaced, and invoices keep arriving. This is precisely how patrol vehicles and radios have been procured for decades. Drones have now joined that list.

A small city spending $410,000 on six drones to fly 65 missions a year suggests someone got caught up in the technology enthusiasm — and signed up to pay for it over five years. The worst part may not even be the cost: Redmond will never fully own these drones, and it did not entirely choose this path. The federal ban made the choice for them.

This case also illustrates a third funding pathway for drone programs. Some departments pursue federal grants; others tap police foundations. Redmond drew on construction budget surplus. Whichever route is taken, the destination is the same: drones in the air and bills in the mail.

The 30-month milestone is worth watching. If Redmond does in fact swap out six still-functioning drones for next-generation models at that point, it will confirm whether municipal drone programs are genuinely useful operational tools — or permanent subscription services with a built-in upgrade fee.

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