The Selma Police Department will use new drones to provide extra security for this weekend’s Bridge Crossing Jubilee.

The department purchased four DJI Phantom 3 Professional drones late last year. Since then, the department has been working on registering and insuring the aircraft.

“Now we’re all covered,” said Chief John Brock. “You’ll see them up and down Water Avenue and down Broad Street all day Saturday and Sunday.”

According to the Electric Frontier Foundation (EFF), the Selma Police Department is the second department in Alabama to utilize drones. The Gadsden Police Department was the first.

The department had to write a Certificate of Waiver or Authorization (COA), stating how the drones will be used.

Brock said the drones will primarily serve for traffic and crowd control during large events.

“It will give us a bigger range of security,” Brock said. “If we’ve got a bunch of officers on this corner and something happens on that corner, we can fly over there to find out what’s going on if we can’t get to it.”

The drones can record video and photo stills, and fly in the air for about 20 minutes at a time.

According the policy written, the drones can be used for criminal investigations in addition to traffic and crowd control, but must seek approval and guidance from the chief.

The approval and guidance will ensure jurisdiction and whether or not a warrant would be required.

Officers are required to document the date, times, purpose of each flight as well as if a warrant was needed and if one was obtained. Flight patterns must also be retrievable. For criminal investigations, flight patterns must be pre-approved to ensure the privacy of those not being investigated.

Any material collected of persons not under investigation will not be duplicated or stored. The information will be destroyed in a timely manner.

When it comes to state and federal regulation over drones in criminal investigations, laws run new but are slowly being put into action.

In 2012, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky, proposed a bill, The Preserving Freedom from Unwarranted Surveillance Act, limiting government related drone use that collects information.

The bill prevents information or evidence regarding criminal conduct or violation of a statue or regulation gathered except when authorized in a warrant that meets the requirements of the Fourth Amendment. Other exclusions include patrol of borders, exigent circumstances or high-risk situations such as terrorist attacks by groups or individuals.

The bill died in a previous Congress and was reintroduced in 2013. The bill has been read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.

In early 2015, President Barack Obama authorized the Presidential Memorandum: Promoting Economic Competitiveness While Safeguarding Privacy, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties in Domestic Use of Unmanned Aircraft Systems. The memorandum states every three years all federal agencies must review their policies to ensure privacy, civil rights and civil liberties are ensured. Agencies can only collect information consistent and relevant to its authorized use.

In the policy, drones used by the Selma police will not be used to disturb the peace of private citizens practicing their right of freedom of speech and assembly.

Drones will not at any point be equipped with weapons or face recognition technology. Officers must obtain written approval from the chief to utilize drone instruments such as night vision, zoom lenses, listening devices and thermal equipment.

In addition to the written policy, officers must follow Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) rules and regulations because drones are considered unmanned aircrafts systems (UAS).

Usage rules and regulations are administered by the FAA for UAS safety and include daylight-only operations, must be in visual line-of-sight by operator or visual observer, must not exceed 500 feet altitude above ground level and others.

Officers designated and trained to use the aircraft must also be FAA certified and approved.

Any officers who misuse or fail to follow the written policy will face disciplinary action up to and including termination.

The Selma Police Department currently has about six designated drone operators.

“We’ve had a pretty good response,” Sgt. Joe Bills said. “I’m sure after they see us flying there will be more of them coming forward wanting to learn.”

Brock believes the drone system will help provide an extra level of security for event attendees because of the assisted visual aide.

“It’s just going to be a great help for us,” Brock said. “It’s a lot of area to cover.”