Equipment Advances
The first helicopters used by U.S. law enforcement were basic rotorcraft, including the Bell 47 acquired by the New York Police Department in 1948 and the Los Angeles Police Department’s first Hiller 12J in 1956. They were eyes in the sky that flew missions during daylight in visual flight conditions, with their onboard equipment limited to operations and voice communications.
How things have changed since then. “Today the helicopter must still be able to carry out traditional surveillance and security missions – road traffic, policing, and sensitive events – but more and more, the modern police helicopter has to be versatile with a multi-role capacity,” said Stephane Rousseau, Airbus Helicopters’ senior operational manager in charge of its Air Law Enforcement segment. “This capacity is illustrated by the new-generation Airbus H160 helicopter, which the French National Gendarmerie will start deploying in 2023.” The H160 will carry out French missions involving counterterrorism, public
68 May/June 2021
order, investigations, and observation and
surveillance by retransmitting information securely, he said.
The expansion of LE helicopter missions has been accompanied by an expansion in useful airborne equipment. In turn, this has made even more kinds of LE aerial operations possible.
“Advancements in camera technology, mission management computer systems, downlink technology, and the amount of information we can provide to our customers on the ground has fundamentally changed how we perform our missions today,” said Capt. Lee Majors. He is aviation division commander with the Leon County (Florida) Sheriff’s Office, which recently added a new single-engine Bell 505 to its fleet of three Bell 206B3 JetRangers. “Every day our helicopters are more heavily relied on as airborne command-and-control and intelligence gathering platforms,” he explained. “With the recent addition of a
live
more powerful helicopter to the fleet, we’re considering adding fire-bucket work and vertical extraction to our capabilities.”
Advanced onboard equipment also matters to the Alachua County (Florida) Sheriff’s Office. “Our unit currently operates two Bell OH-58 helicopters, and we support a variety of public safety missions including patrol, surveillance, and tactical support to SWAT and K9. We’re primarily an observation platform,” said retired LE officer and Chief Pilot Richard Bray. Although the OH-58s are military surplus, “Our aircraft are well equipped with recent advances, are ADS-B In-Out with traffic and weather, plus white- phosphor night vision goggles (NVGs). Our next goal is to upgrade to an HD camera system.”
Equipment supplier Aviation Specialties Unlimited (ASU) offers both white phosphor (WP) and green phosphor (GP) NVGs to LE customers, but the company is promoting WP as the most useful of the two options.
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