San Diego's cash-strapped Fire-Rescue Department (SDFRD) deployed a helicopter on an out-of-county missing-persons search for a man who, it turned out, was simply resting at home. The episode has drawn public anger because the department spent close to $30,000 on the operation shortly after budget cuts eliminated several staff posts, raising questions about how emergency resources are used.

On 29 June, the SDFRD sent its Sikorsky S-70i Firehawk to search for 47-year-old Wesley Alan MacFarland, son of longtime chief of air operations Charles MacFarland, who was feared to be in trouble while surfing a dangerous, big-swell spot at Newport Beach. The roughly two-and-a-half-hour search — costing Orange County about $28,800 — was called off after MacFarland was found "chilling at his apartment", according to a local surfer. The expense came soon after the city's new budget cut a fire academy instructor, a recruitment and retention officer, and a fire information officer, and the operation was initially described as a routine mutual-aid response to a neighbouring jurisdiction.