KVIG Informative

Nevada’s statutes for the Metropolitan Police Department say nothing about accepting donated equipment. The company whose drones now cover the valley has paid federal lobbyists since 2024, and former congressional and aviation officials are on its team.

On Oct. 11, 2024, venture capitalist Ben Horowitz published a post describing what he and his wife, Felicia, had given the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. About $6.3 million, he wrote, went toward two technologies from Skydio and Flock Safety. He described both companies as portfolio companies of his firm, Andreessen Horowitz.

The post lists three other gifts: $800,000 for computer terminals, about $120,000 for a gym, an ice machine and a cappuccino machine for 911 operators, and $400,000 for call technology from Prepared911, which he also called a portfolio company. The four figures add up to about $7.6 million. He does not state a total, and he does not say how the $6.3 million divides between Skydio and Flock.

Skydio’s own blog described the result on May 17, 2024. It featured Deputy Chief Dori Koren outlining how the department was integrating drones, and it named the Skydio X10 as the aircraft in the mobile drone-as-first-responder program. The department launched that program in October 2024.

A 2026 presentation by Lt. Dan Saggiomo to the state Commission on Homeland Security put the program at 12 dock locations, 38 remote drones and 16 mobile drones covering about 130 square miles. The deck reports 10,564 flights and 8,874 missions in 2025, and says a drone arrives before patrol units nearly 70 percent of the time. It states no funding source.

State law does not address donated equipment

The Metropolitan Police Department exists under Nevada Revised Statutes chapter 280. NRS 280.280 lets the department contract for goods and services with the approval of its Committee on Fiscal Affairs, in compliance with the local government purchasing act, chapter 332.

Chapter 280 has no section on gifts, donations or grants. Chapter 332 has no section on accepting donated goods; its donation provision, NRS 332.185, covers local governments giving away surplus property. Neither chapter speaks to equipment that a donor buys and hands to the department.

Lawmakers have taken up drones from the supplier side. In 2023, a Senate committee heard Senate Bill 11, requested by the City of Henderson. The drone maker BRINC proposed an amendment directing the Department of Public Safety to list prohibited countries and entities that public agencies could not buy drones from, starting Jan. 1, 2025, according to the committee minutes. In 2025, Assemblywoman Lisa Cole sponsored Assembly Bill 439, which revises rules on buying certain drones and related equipment. It became Chapter 317 and took effect July 1, 2025.

Federal money for local drones, by contrast, passes through a public meeting. At a July 14, 2026 special meeting of the Las Vegas urban area working group, whose minutes are marked draft, Henderson police requested $1,079,442.47 for three drone docks. North Las Vegas asked for $869,200.24 for a drone-first-responder program and described a version scaled to $458,345. The City of Las Vegas requested $500,000, Clark County Fire $142,500 for a tethered drone, and the Metropolitan Police Department’s SWAT team $40,000. The minutes name no vendor.

They also record that the SWAT request is the third and final year of a three-year project, and that the department will pursue larger drone systems through private fundraising instead of the federal grant.

The department’s fundraising arm is Friends For Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, a tax-exempt nonprofit since September 1999. Its IRS filings report revenue of $12.5 million in 2021, $11.6 million in 2022, $7.56 million in 2023 and $7.40 million in 2024. Expenses were $2.66 million, $27.5 million, $4.51 million and $7.50 million. It ended 2024 with $3.51 million in assets. Karen Marben is executive director and Mike Howard is president.

Skydio’s lobbying runs through Washington

Federal disclosure records show Skydio paying lobbyists continuously. In 2024, the company reported $360,000 in fees to Holland & Knight and $200,000 to Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, which billed $50,000 a quarter.

Skydio also registered its own lobbyist on March 15, 2024. Joe Bartlett’s disclosure lists prior work as a staff assistant to Rep. John Kline, a legislative correspondent and assistant to Rep. Francis Rooney, a military legislative assistant to Rep. Elise Stefanik, and a professional staff member on the House Armed Services Committee. Skydio reported $170,000 in expenses in each quarter of 2024, a total of $680,000.

The roster changed this year. Holland & Knight ended its work for Skydio on April 24, 2026. Greenberg Traurig registered for the company effective May 1 and reported $60,000 in fees for the second quarter and $90,000 for the third.

Greenberg’s registration lists four lobbyists with government pasts. Christopher Senn was an assistant administrator at the Federal Aviation Administration and counsel to a House aviation subcommittee. Daniel Sennott was minority staff director of the House Armed Services Committee. Misha Lehrer was a legislative aide to Sen. Chris Murphy from 2015 to 2022. Joel Roberson worked on the House Republican Conference and House Judiciary Committee staffs.

A third firm, Rubin, Turnbull & Associates, reported $70,000 in each of the first two quarters of 2026 before ending its work on June 30. On Oct. 5, another firm, S-3 Group, registered for Skydio with nine lobbyists, each listing a prior government position. Fees paid to outside firms in 2026 reach $560,000 through the third quarter, the same amount Holland & Knight and Brownstein received in all of 2024.

A Las Vegas police lieutenant now works for a drone maker

Will Huddler spent more than 19 years at the Metropolitan Police Department. He held lieutenant posts in patrol, SWAT, patrol administration and force investigations, and he chaired the Police Managers and Supervisors Association. BRINC, a drone maker, announced him as its vice president of public safety operations.

No filing or company page cited here alleges that any of these job changes or lobbying relationships broke a rule.

The Legislature convenes Feb. 1, 2027. The purchase orders, invoices and gift agreements that would show who paid Skydio, and whether the company gave anything to the department or its fundraising arm, are not in the public filings.