Sonoma County Code Enforcement Leaders Flee Amidst Illegal Spying Lawsuit

Long-time Sonoma County code enforcement & permitting staff are jumping ship as the ACLU Sues Sonoma County over the Runaway Drone Spying Program

Long-time Sonoma County code enforcement & permitting staff are jumping ship as the ACLU Sues Sonoma County over the Runaway Drone Spying Program.

Six years ago, Sonoma County code enforcement (CES) launched a warrantless drone surveillance program that officials said would address unpermitted cannabis grows in hard to access rural areas. But it has since become a runaway spying operation with no accountability, trampling residents’ right to privacy in and around their homes and targeting people for a wide array of unrelated code violations that have resulted in millions of dollars in excessive fines.

The ACLU filed a lawsuit against the County of Sonoma on June 4, 2025.

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Sonoma County Defendants Tennis Wick, Director of Permit Sonoma, Tyra Harrington, Code Enforcement Manager for Permit Sonoma, and Todd Hoffman, Senior Code Enforcement Manager of Permit Sonoma retired just before the ACLU lawsuit was filed.

Is the retirement of these individuals coincidental, or are the defendants worried about the potential outcome of the ACLU’s lawsuit?