# Arkansas Law-Enforcement Drone Authority Arkansas and federal law do not reduce police-drone use to a universal warrant rule. The legal analysis depends on the purpose and location of image capture, the statutory exception or defense invoked, the operator's FAA pathway, and the surveillance facts. ## Arkansas Act 597 of 2025 Act 597 amended Arkansas's UAS imaging law. It defines offenses and civil remedies, addresses unlawful-image handling, supplies official-duty defenses, and enumerates circumstances in which government UAS image capture is lawful. Those provisions must be applied to the particular mission; they do not make every law-enforcement flight lawful and do not impose a warrant prerequisite on every flight. (primary public record, [Arkansas Act 597 of 2025](../../web%20archive/2026-08-10/arkleg.state.ar.us/arkansas-act-597-of-2025.md)) ## FAA operating paths Government operators may fly under Part 107 or through the public-aircraft certificate-of-authorization pathway. Part 107 supplies operational and airspace rules and allows specified waivers. Registered or registration-required public-safety drones generally must comply with Remote ID; silence in a production about a certificate, waiver, registration, or Remote ID does not prove noncompliance. (primary public record, [FAA Public Safety Drone Programs](../../web%20archive/2026-08-10/faa.gov/public-safety-drone-programs.md)); (primary public record, [FAA Part 107 rules](../../web%20archive/2026-08-10/faa.gov/small-uas-regulations-part-107.md)); (primary public record, [FAA Remote Identification of Drones](../../web%20archive/2026-08-10/faa.gov/remote-identification-of-drones.md)) ## Fourth Amendment boundary The Supreme Court held that naked-eye observation from lawful public airspace at 1,000 feet was not a search on the facts of *California v. Ciraolo*. Justice O'Connor's narrower controlling rationale in *Florida v. Riley* tied the 400-foot helicopter result to lawful, noninterfering, sufficiently common public use. The Eighth Circuit similarly upheld a naked-eye helicopter observation from 200 to 300 feet on a record without interference or intimate detail. These aircraft cases do not settle persistent low-altitude drones, enhanced sensors, or every curtilage mission. (primary public record, [California v. Ciraolo](../../web%20archive/2026-08-10/govinfo.gov/california-v-ciraolo-476-u-s-207-1986.md)); (primary public record, [Florida v. Riley](../../web%20archive/2026-08-10/govinfo.gov/florida-v-riley-488-u-s-445-1989.md)); (primary public record, [United States v. Warford](../../web%20archive/2026-08-10/ecf.ca8.uscourts.gov/united-states-v-deandra-sue-warford-united-states-of-america-v-phillip-whatley-439-f-3d-836-8th-cir-2006.md)) Arkansas appellate authority found no reasonable expectation of privacy in an exposed open field viewed from an aircraft on its particular facts; it did not decide a drone mission over home curtilage. *Kyllo* supplies a separate technology principle: using sense-enhancing technology not in general public use to learn details of a home otherwise unavailable without physical intrusion is a search. (web research 2026-08-10, [Izzard v. State](../../web%20archive/2026-08-10/app.midpage.ai/izzard-v-state-663-s-w-2d-192-ark-ct-app-1984.md)); (primary public record, [Kyllo v. United States](../../web%20archive/2026-08-10/govinfo.gov/kyllo-v-united-states-533-u-s-27-2001.md)) *Long Lake Township v. Maxon* did not decide whether the drone surveillance there was a Fourth Amendment search; it held that suppression was unavailable in that prospective civil zoning proceeding. It therefore is not a constitutional drone-search holding. (primary public record, [Long Lake Township v. Maxon](../../web%20archive/2026-08-10/courts.michigan.gov/long-lake-township-v-todd-maxon-513-mich-101-mich-2024.md)) ## Evidence boundary A produced policy may establish local safeguards; a flight log may establish a mission's time, place, duration, and aircraft. Neither alone proves the warrant or exception used, the FAA authorization path, the sensor configuration, or compliance. Those questions require mission-specific records.