The Tuscaloosa Police Department is starting to turn away volunteers who don’t have a clearly defined mission in most affected areas. However, those with a clear mission don’t necessarily need a wristband to access those areas, according to volunteer coordinators at St. Matthias Episcopal Church on Skyland Boulevard.

“They were trying to keep sightseers out of the area, out of certain areas where they’re trying to still get power lines up, that kind of thing,” volunteer coordinator Summer McCoy said. “They’re trying to keep unnecessary people out.”

“We haven’t had a lot of people being stopped because they didn’t have wristbands, as long as they explain they were sent out by St. Matthias to do what they plan to do,” she said. “Yes, the wristbands are being used, but just because you don’t have one doesn’t mean you absolutely aren’t going to be able to get out there.”

She said St. Matthias is still serving as the central Tuscaloosa hub for volunteers and is working with all other groups to register volunteers and send them on specific assignments. However, she said the church had not received a new shipment of wristbands to give out since yesterday.

“We had some yesterday, but we haven’t gotten any today,” she said.

Credentialing volunteers—the process of registering volunteers and providing them with identification necessary to enter the most damaged areas—is set to begin Saturday at the McAbee Center, according to Don DeJarnette with the Tuscaloosa Co. Emergency Management Agency.

“They [will] find out what the volunteers do and what experience they have, then give them some means of identification and some mission to accomplish…they [will] have to be identified with a badge before they could enter the areas,” he said.

DeJarnette said that according to the officer stationed with Tuscaloosa Co. EMA, they do not know whether they’re going to continue the wristband system once they credentialing begins.

McCoy said that in the midst of confusion about the wristband system, people should remember that not all volunteer work is done out in the path of the tornado itself.

“Everybody wants to go do the manual labor,” she said. “But the really important stuff does come with helping serve meals and helping organize donations—doing all this other stuff that people tend not to think about in times of crisis.”