ENFIELD — The Selectboard voted to accept a $15,000 donation from the Jack and Dorothy Byrne Foundation to purchase a drone for the Enfield Police Department after a public hearing Monday night.
The Selectboard’s approval came with a caveat: The drone would only go into use once the board “formally adopts a small unmanned aircraft policy or ordinance,” according to a recording of the meeting.
The vote was 4 to 1, with Selectboard member Alice Kennedy casting the sole no vote. The board’s decision came after a nearly hour-long public hearing where residents discussed a variety of concerns about the drone, primarily about privacy.
“I would like to see anything written into policy that they will not use these drones to surveil peaceful protests specifically,” resident Elizabeth Rizzo said in a recording of the hearing.
Selectboard member Kate Plumley Stewart said she’d heard from residents who were concerned about how the drone would be used.
“The opinion of some people, which I really want to acknowledge, is that it’s kind of creepy to worry that Big Brother in the sky is watching,” she said in a recording of the hearing.
In the last six months, there were eight incidents where officers would have found a drone useful, particularly in searching for missing people, Enfield Police Chief Roy Holland has previously said. If the department was ever to use it for a criminal investigation, it would need to ask a judge for a search warrant.
During the public hearing, Holland reiterated that the drone would not be used for surveillance purposes.
“We won’t be using it to watch peaceful protests,” Holland said in the hearing recording. “We won’t be using it to patrol through Main Street.”
Before casting the lone “no” vote, Kennedy spoke about broad concerns residents have about privacy.
“Probably our faith in or trust in the ability of laws to protect us at this time is probably like at an all-time low. Sometimes they’re seeming kind of bendy, particularly at the federal level,” she said during a recording of the hearing. “It just might be a matter of timing.”
As part of its approval, the Selectboard directed Town Manager Ed Morris to work with other town officials on a small unmanned aircraft policy and bring it back to the board for approval.
Following the Selectboard vote, Police Department staff are putting together a request for proposal to send out to companies that sell law enforcement drones, Holland said in a Thursday phone interview. After receiving the proposals, staff will review them and present a final one to the Selectboard for approval.
In the meantime, two officers will begin training to receive drone operator licenses through the Federal Aviation Administration.
Holland said he expects that the department will purchase the drone using the $15,000 donation within the next couple of months.