Earlier this year, the San Jose Police Department (SJPD) became one of the first local law enforcement agencies in California—and one of the few in the country—to acquire a drone.

According to new documents acquired and published Tuesday by MuckRock and Vice, the SJPD acquired a Hexacopter called the Century Neo 660 along with a GoPro video camera, live video transmitter, and more. The nearly $7,000 January purchase was funded through a grant from the Bay Area Urban Areas Security Initiative (UASI), a regional arm of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

The Century Neo 660, and others like it, typically have a flight time of less than 30 minutes depending on motor and battery configuration. However, the drone doesn't appear to be in use for the time being, according to a July 25, 2014 letter from the SJPD to MuckRock, stating “the program relating to drones has not been implemented yet.” San Jose is the third-largest city in the Golden State, and it's the tenth-largest in the United States.

Douglas Wedge, the bomb squad sergeant specifically named on the grant application, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Helicopter World, which is named in the documents as a San Jose business that sold the SJPD a Century Neo 660, declined to say what other law enforcement agencies have either purchased or made inquiries on drone acquisitions.

"I'm going to have no comment on this issue,” Joe B, a sales representative from Helicopter World who declined to give his last name, told Ars. “Unfortunately I'm not at liberty to discuss purchases from any clients that we may or may not have completed."

Sid Heal, a retired commander who evaluated technology during his decades-long tenure at the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, told Ars that the government's drone policies are lagging but that their deployment seems inevitable.

"Drones are being used more and more but surreptitiously," he told Ars. "I’ve talked with several people who have personally used them in support of police operations, but there are still no official programs that I’m aware of that do not require lengthy, cumbersome, and unnecessary protocols with the FAA. If San Jose has a real program, and not just one that is exploratory in nature with a 'jump through the hoops and see what’s up' pilot, it will be the first that I’m aware of. The ones on the East Coast meet all the conditions of a pilot project but without any sustainability criteria that I’m aware of."

Grounded, for the time being

The SJPD still needs official permission from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to fly. It may need a blanket Certificates of Authorizations (COA) and also a specific Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) each time the drone is used above 400 feet. The most recently published COA list from 2012 does not list any California law enforcement agency. (MuckRock currently has a pending Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, request for an updated list.)

Albert Morales, the public information officer for the SJPD, told Ars that his agency had not applied for nor received a COA from the FAA. He did say the SJPD plans on applying for one.

"We will not utilize the 'drone' until authorization is granted by the FAA," he noted by e-mail.

Known local law enforcement use of drones is still relatively limited nationwide—the only cities and counties listed on that 2012 COA document are Arlington, Texas; Herington, Kansas; Houston, Texas; North Little Rock, Arkansas; Gadsden, Alabama; Mesa County, Colorado; Miami-Dade, Florida; Montgomery County, Texas; Orange County, Florida; Otter Tail County, Minnesota; Polk County, Florida; and Seattle, Washington.

But it's still unclear exactly which California law enforcement agencies possess and/or have FAA authorization to fly drones. The most recent FAA COA set of FOIA responses, at over 3GB, displayed an error message when Ars made repeated attempts to download it.

Seattle canceled its plans for a drone in February 2013, but its authorization remains on the books. And the Seattle Police Department gave its two drones to the Los Angeles Police Department in June 2014. Earlier this year, Ventura County (just north of Los Angeles County) filed for a COA approval from the FAA. Way back in 2006, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department tested drones before grounding its program. In 2007, the Sacramento Police Department said it was "exploring" drone use. Even a public utility, San Diego Gas & Electric, announced earlier this month that it had received FAA approval for use in inspection of power transmission equipment.

"The public needs to have the opportunity to weigh in."

Many privacy-minded legal experts and activists feel that there hasn't been enough public debate about the acquisition of drones. Mary Madden, of the group Alameda County Against Drones , told Ars that her group opposes law enforcement drones altogether.

"Unfortunately, now that the [California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection] has been enrolled in the surveillance state by DHS mandate and are participating in the discriminatory practice of Suspicious Activity Reporting, we can't really assume they will not also use drones for surveillance," she said.

Similarly, Brian Owsley, a former federal judge from Texas and now a professor at the Indiana Institute of Technology Law School, told Ars that he was unaware of any specific incidents involving drones during his time on the bench. He noted "there is case law that holds a search warrant is not required for an airplane surveillance search over a home... Still, there is an argument to be made that drones are problematic in the same ways as stingrays or GPS. By that I mean, these new technologies are so invasive that they need special consideration in light of the Fourth Amendment.

"A drone seemingly would be similar to the GPS concerns raised in United States v. Jones," he continued, referring to the landmark unanimous 2012 Supreme Court decision finding that cops could not put a GPS device on a suspect without a warrant. "In other words, while a normal airplane would require at least a pilot to engage in surveillance, a drone could operate almost unlimited for a very long time period. This aspect might trigger Fourth Amendment concerns."

Meanwhile, Nicole Ozer, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, noted that it's extraordinarily difficult to figure out who has drones and who doesn't.

"It feels like drone buying shouldn't be able to fly under the community radar, so to speak," she told Ars. "The fact that people aren't clear whether or not communities have drones or are considering drones is troubling. The public needs to have the opportunity to weigh in."

"This UAV would be only one of its kind"

An April 2014 document from SJPD to UASI appears to suggest that the SJPD's drone will be used by multiple agencies throughout the region.

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) for San Jose Police Department's Bomb Squad. The areas that will be served are the City of San Jose, Santa Clara County, and the whole Bay Area Region via mutual aid agreements. … This UAV will enable public safety bomb squads throughout the Bay Area to conduct quick and accurate threat assessments and will help bomb squads clear a suspected hazardous area of explosives or hazardous materials in a remote, safe, timely and effective manner. Fire Department Hazmat Response Team can also utilize this UAV to assess a WMD or hazardous material incident. All 13 bomb squads in the Bay Area could utilize this piece of equipment if needed. This UAV would be only one of its kind for use by the different squads and could be used to investigate suspicious packages and respond to a [chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosive] event throughout the Bay Area.

A bill pending in the California State Senate would require a warrant to use a drone, but the latest draft does provide some notable exceptions. These include “imminent threat to life," traffic accidents, and the ability to “inspect state parks and wilderness areas for illegal vegetation,” which likely refers to unauthorized marijuana farms.

A YouTube user named Brook Dain filmed his test flight with the Century Neo 660 in March 2013.