OAKLAND, Calif. - Sonoma County's Code Enforcement Division was today named in an ACLU lawsuit alleging the department has been using high-powered drones to conduct an illegal, warrantless surveillance program on county residents.

The program, launched six years ago, was intended to address unpermitted cannabis grows in hard-to-access rural areas, but the lawsuit, filed by the ACLU and a partner firm on behalf of three residents say it's become something more insidious.

"We all have the right to go about our lives in privacy in and around our homes without having to worry about a government drone flying overhead and recording us without a warrant or our knowledge," Matt Cagle, a senior staff attorney with the ACLU Foundation of Northern California, said in a press release. " For too lo

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