The Alabama Legislature gave final passage Thursday to legislation giving the Alabama Department of Corrections the ability to stop drones over state prisons.
House Bill 274 by Rep. Matt Simpson, R-Daphne, now awaits the governor’s signature.
“In 2024, we passed a bill to create criminal penalties for those who flew drones over correctional facilities,” Simpson told Alabama Daily News. “This bill is needed to give law enforcement the ability to use methods to take down the drones when they see the act occurring.
“This is an effort to make sure that contraband is kept out of our prisons and that law enforcement has the tools necessary to accomplish that goal.”
The legislation allows the ADOC to “take reasonable and necessary measures against an unmanned aircraft” including jamming signals, hacking, physical capture and “any other reasonable mitigation measure undertaken to neutralize, intercept, disable, or disrupt an unmanned aircraft system.”
Flying a drone over or near prisons became a Class C felony two years ago in an effort to reduce contraband among inmates.