I agree.
Yes and no. Chula PD is open in that it discloses the regular patrol routes of its drones. However, the appellate court concluded its being overly secretive and violating the CA Public Records Act by refusing to produce any drone videos recorded during so-called "emergency response" flights. Chula's reasoning was that every emergency response was by definition an "investigation" making all such drone videos exempt from public disclosure.
Every state has its own public records act which specifies what records are and are not exempt from disclosure. An exemption for an ongoing police investigation is common. The rationale is that releasing a police report regarding an active and ongoing investigation may compromise the investigation. My hunch is that its uncommon, however, for a police department to claim that every single report relating to an emergency response is by definition forever exempt from public disclosure.
So in the case here, the appellate court said that Chula is not being sufficiently transparent and is violating CA Public Records Act. Since Chula PD is one of the few PDs in the country permitted by the FAA to fly BVLOS, some may find disturbing its efforts to cloak all these flights in secrecy.
I would say that depends on your level of interest in Chula PDs BVLOS flights and using state public records act to obtain government drone videos. You know what they say, one man's trash is another man's treasure.