State law requiring California school police to publicly disclose military-grade weapons is being widely ignored, according to a CalMatters investigation that found several districts — including some serving Southern California and Inland Empire students — have failed to file required inventory reports, hold public forums, or keep equipment policies up to date.
Nine of California’s 21 public school police departments own military-grade gear such as semi-automatic rifles, less-lethal launchers and smoke grenades. Under a 2021 law, Assembly Bill 481, those departments must publish annual reports detailing their inventories, document how the equipment was used, and give residents a chance to weigh in at a public forum. But CalMatters found that five of the nine districts — including Fontana Unified, San Bernardino City Unified, Apple Valley Unified, San Diego Unified and Los Angeles Unified — had not published current reports before being contacted by reporters.
San Diego and Montebello school police only released updated reports after CalMatters inquired. Twin Rivers Unified in Sacramento County and Santa Ana Unified issued their first-ever public reports this year, despite having owned military equipment for years.
Fontana Unified School District initially told CalMatters its police force owned no military equipment, then reversed course days later, saying it would update a 2024 report and present it to the school board this month. San Bernardino City Unified gave a similar response before producing documentation showing it does, in fact, have such equipment.
Apple Valley Unified’s 2025 policy lists tasers, semi-automatic rifles, sponge-round launchers and munitions as military equipment but contains none of the required details on training, costs or usage rules. The district said it has never filed an inventory report, arguing its rifles and tasers are exempt because they are “standard issue” — though watchdogs and the CalMatters review found several districts making similar claims despite state definitions saying otherwise.
The law, signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, was intended to rein in the militarization of local police forces, particularly in lower-income and minority communities, by requiring elected school boards to approve — and regularly reapprove — the use of such weapons. Agencies must show the equipment is cost effective, protects civil liberties and that no reasonable non-military alternative exists.
Los Angeles School Police Department, once stripped of Pentagon-surplus gear including grenade launchers and an armored vehicle after public backlash a decade ago, still maintains 112 semi-automatic rifles and 104 bean-bag shotguns, according to district spokesperson Christy Hagen. She said the equipment is used only in limited, high-risk emergencies to protect students and staff, but did not say whether the district intends to formally disclose the arsenal as state law requires.
In Sacramento County, the Twin Rivers Unified School District Police Department has held such equipment for more than two decades but did not adopt a formal use policy until this past May — several years after the law took effect. Police Chief David Lugo told the district’s governing board the new policy was simply about achieving compliance, not expanding authority. In April, before the policy existed, Twin Rivers officers deployed patrol rifles while responding to a shooting at a nearby high school where a teenager was killed.
The rollout of that policy sparked a heated debate among parents and staff. Some argued that campus police need access to rifles and less-lethal weapons to respond quickly to an active-shooter situation, especially in areas where outside law enforcement backup could take many minutes to arrive. Others countered that the weapons — some functionally identical to firearms used in combat zones — require far more training than school officers typically receive, and that arming campus police could alienate the Black and Latino families who make up more than half the district’s students.
A CalMatters review in July uncovered similar gaps in transparency among California’s public college and university police departments, finding many campuses were not properly disclosing their own military-style arsenals. The latest findings suggest the same pattern extends into K-12 education statewide, raising fresh questions about oversight of school policing at a time when some communities are pushing for greater investment in counseling and de-escalation training rather than hardware.
District officials in Santa Ana and Montebello also acknowledged their equipment-use policies omit legally required details, such as how the public can file complaints about weapon deployment. Montebello said residents can raise issues at police town halls or board meetings, while Twin Rivers pointed to complaint forms available by mail or in person. Santa Ana did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
Elsewhere, districts such as Victor Valley Union High School, Clovis Unified and Hesperia Unified have adopted formal military-equipment policies but say they do not currently own, and have no plans to purchase, such gear. Compton Unified, which drew criticism in 2014 after authorizing officers to carry AR-15-style rifles, said it ultimately never purchased the weapons.
Following CalMatters’ inquiries, several districts — including Fontana, San Bernardino and San Diego — said they intend to publish updated reports and resume compliance with the law as the new school year begins.
Original source: CalMatters
