SACRAMENTO COUNTY — The Sacramento County Sheriff's Office used a quadcopter drone equipped with a magnet to disarm a suspect in June 2026. The Sheriff's Office posted a video of the operation to Facebook and Instagram on June 22, 2026.

The video showed the drone removing a knife from the hand of a motionless suspect. The Sheriff's Office described the individual as a felony suspect armed with a knife and a firearm, and a known felon and parolee-at-large who had been seen with a firearm earlier. Negotiators reported the suspect was not responding to communications.

Officers deployed a SWAT team and surrounded the suspect's residence. An initial drone located the suspect lying facedown on a chair or sofa in a garage corner, holding a knife in one outstretched arm. A second small drone, flown by an officer using first-person view goggles, entered the garage. This drone used a dangling magnet to grasp the knife's blade and pull it from the suspect's hand. The drone then carried the knife outside the garage, allowing officers to retrieve it.

Jim Cooper, the head of the Sacramento County Sheriff's Office, said the suspect "may have overdosed" after initially responding to law enforcement. Cooper stated that the magnet idea "possibly saved someone's life, preventing us from taking a life." He added that his officers use drones "all the time to fly into houses, through a garage door, doggy doors."

In September 2025, Sacramento County supervisors unanimously approved the purchase of 27 drones for the sheriff's office. These drones had a starting price of $5,000 per unit. The overall $1 million package included an armored vehicle and a robot. The Sheriff's Office's 2025 annual report listed 18 drones in its inventory, including commercial multirotor drones from DJI and Autel, and a fixed-wing drone from Event 38, an Ohio-based company, capable of vertical takeoffs and landings.