LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The Louisville Metro Police Department will soon be using more drones in its investigations. Thursday the department announced it will spend $100,000 to expand its drone fleet and train more officers on how to use them.

The money will pay for eight drones — one for each of LMPD’s divisions. It will also fund the training of four offers from each division, who will complete a certification test from the Federal Aviation Administration to fly drones commercially.

The money comes from the department’s budget and from several metro council districts.

“When we go on scene, we can have eyes on scene prior to us arriving to like a dangerous subject or anything like that or a 1085 attempt, a wanted person attempt. We can get eyes on scene before we’re there and have a better tactical advantage,” Maj. Donald Boeckman with LMPD said.

LMPD says it hopes to use these new devices to crack down on illegal ATV and dirt bike riding in the city’s parks and trails.

Something District 14 metro councilwoman Cindi Fowler is glad to see happen.

“The ATV’s, the dirt bikes are real issues in the Louisville Loop. They’re terrorizing people, they are killing people, two people were killed on the Louisville Loop,” Fowler said.

“The drones are really a great intelligence gathering device so that we could use to identify these specific ATVs. These specific people will use our detectives’ office to gather that intelligence and try to develop probable cause o address these issues,” Boeckman said on this specific issue.

The department has used drones for several years, according to Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel. She says this will expand their use down to the division level, which would allow them to be used more throughout the county.

The chief adds information about when and why the department deploys its drones will be made publicly available.