As city police in Canada look to add helicopters to their departments I get the feeling they are picking a “Rolls-Royce” when a “Chevy” might do the job. Might a R44, used Bell 206, or used MD500 do the job? Or does the tax payer have to pony up and buy a brand new turbine?
It's a question of capability and the evolving role of Police aviation, not only in Canada, but south of the boarder and beyond.
Modern helicopters are expensive, no question, and I too look the costs and I have to wonder. That said, the group of machines you listed are no longer able to perform the types of missions most police Departments require, and as an example the Calgary Police are painted into a corner with their choice of machine - the EC120 - and it's reduced load capacity. To go to the EC130 is a significant cost/size increase, but allows far more in terms of capability and mission tasking.
You want to Google some of the US Police and Fire Departments and their fleets - it's unbelievable. San Diego and LA are a good start.
If WPS does indeed purchase a police helicopter it will be a great move. Not only for officer safety, but for overall effectiveness and pressence. For an officer working patrol on the ground, it's very helpful knowing your colleagues are watching over you.
An R44 won't work - all the radios, scanners, FLIR, and downlink equipment weigh too much. I wouldn't be surprised if WPS buys an EC120. EPS and CPS operate them and are overall pretty pleased. So happy infact we now have Air 2 providing support for us in Edmonton. As STL mentioned, usefull load can be a problem with the EC120, but it's not that big an issue. Both EPS and CPS are limiting fly-alongs so that they can increase their operational effectiveness. Purchase price for Edmonton's newest helicopter was around $2 million (equiped).
Good luck to the WPS. And all I can hope for is that they use sworn police officers to fly the machine.
Well I don't know about using sworn police officers. If you mean they take a trained, experienced pilot, put him through the police training and then set them free in a helicopter, that sounds good. If you mean they take a trained police applicant and then train them to pilot standards, I think that's an accident waiting to happen. Sending a guy with 100 hours aloft in a helicopter with nil experience, at night, in maybe less than ideal conditions while watching the ground instead of flying the aircraft. The missions that a lot of departments are tasked with, involve equipment and flying techniques far more complex what your brand new CPL(H) should be experiencing right off the bat. What a lot of departments in the US do is have civil pilots riding along with a police observer. Better have the professionals doing what they are trained to do best than have rookies trying to figure out the new aspects of their other job (either civil pilot trained to police standards or vice versa).
When Toronto was having its police helicopter trial, it woke me every night spot on 2:30 am. on its refuelling run.
The worst was a building fire several blocks away where one helicopter was tasked with shining a light while its buddy orbited and kept tens of thousands of downtown residents awake from 1:30 to 3:30am. Try to put in a decent day's work the next day.
Since we've been talking about fatigued pilots, I have to report that I had my most frightening piloting moment ever with a PIO taking off in a glider the day after I had to phone the cops about the party animals at 2am.
Diamond Aircraft makes a variety of twins and singles that can be equipped with stealth exhaust systems that let the good citizens get a decent night's sleep while they sneak up on the bad guys for a fraction of the cost of a helicopter.
FW can't do every RW can, but 90% of the job for 10-20% of the bucks is easier on the taxpayer.
J31 you obviously have never been in helicopter, an never one in a police role.
Most police forces have fixed wing already, calgary has couple turbine C206s, RCMP to, you just dont hear about them.
A helicopter is cheap, compared to the weapon of mass destruction, FLIR mounted on the bottom. Anything made by flir is a controlled item and considered a weapon by the US. Just the camera and gyro ball can top 500'000. plus recoding equipment, data links. Your at the cost of the heli.
