Gulf Shores, Ala. – (OBA) – The Gulf Shores Police Department is taking to the skies to help in a variety of operations with the purchase of two drones for about $31,500. The city council approved buying them at an August meeting.

“We’ll use them for search and rescue, missing persons, we’ll use them for perimeter containment,” Det. Carl Wittstruck said. “Say a suspect flees a scene we’ll use that as a perimeter containment tool. Overwatch for SWAT operations or large-scale events.”

Particularly at the two largest events annually in Gulf Shores, the National Shrimp Festival in October and the Hangout Music and Arts Festival each May.

“That’s a perfect example of how we’re going to utilize those,” Wittstruck said. “Certainly, get an idea of the surrounding areas and what’s going on. It can be used for disaster support for hurricanes and things like that.”

This summer the Beach Safety Team received help from an Alabama Law Enforcement Agency’s helicopter to aid in surf rescues, but Wittstruck said so far the police department hasn’t worked out if the drones will be used on the beach as well.

“I don’t know if there’s anything coordinated at that level,” Wittstruck said. “Certainly, any resources that we can utilize with another agency and partner with is definitely a benefit to us and them.”

Among the capabilities the drones will have a speaker option and night vision for utilizing them after dark. Officers have been specifically trained and certified by the FAA to pilot the drones and will operate them when needed.

“It will increase our ability to provide services to the public,” Wittstruck said. “And, of course, before we utilize the drones, we coordinate all our flights through the Gulf Shores airport tower.”

The drones were purchased from Volatus Aerospace based in Ontario.