Helicopters?

[lebinky]

Hello all,

I am working on a paper for a CJ class I'm taking and I could use some help. The topic of the paper is Alternatives to High-Speed Pursuits. It is a persuasive essay and my basic thesis is that there are other risk-reducing alternatives to chases other than banning pursuits. I have researched several viable alternatives like: strip spikes, increased penalties for eluding, and the PIT maneuver to name a few. My question concerns smaller departments and helicopter surveillance. I know some larger departments have their own, but do smaller departments have any access to this equipment? Do they rely on or have any kind of arraingment with local pilots or news choppers? Any insight you guys could give me would be greatly appreciated and I will gladly cite you as a resource in my paper.

Also if you have any more suggestions for types of alternatives I'd really like to hear them.

Thanks for the help.

[MOCOP]

Unless you adjoin a major dept. with air assets. No most Small Agencies don't have the luxarey of helo's to assist in pursuits. Even for those agencies they do have bordering jurisdictions with helos and Mutal Aid agreements the Agency with the air asset has control over their bird. So if the bird is not in the air, on a different assignment or the controling agency doesn't feel the call is important enough to divert it's bird you won't get it.

[txinvestigator1]

You should do a google search. I saw recently on Discovery several new technologies that could make pursuits safer.

One is a EM pulse gun. That technology needs much refinement, as it is not a very narrow area that it pulses. It will disable all electronics in range.

Another is a device which looks like a little like a toy race car. Its drops from the police car and shoots out under the suspect vehicle, then gives of EM and shorts out the cars electronics.

The third is simply a device that is installed on every vehicle. The police simply use a transmitter to send a signal to the receiver in the suspect car, and it shuts down.

[lebinky]

Thanks for the quick reply and the info. Sounds like smaller dept.s are SOL when it comes to helicopter surveilance.

Does your dept. use helicopter surveilance? If so how much of an asset is it in terms of pursuits?

[txinvestigator1]

Thanks for the quick reply and the info. Sounds like smaller dept.s are SOL when it comes to helicopter surveilance.

Does your dept. use helicopter surveilance? If so how much of an asset is it in terms of pursuits?

In the grand scheme, I bet few departments have access to ariel surveillance.

[lebinky]

Tx, thanks for the info. I've heard of the EM pulse technology, but not the toy car thing. Guess I've got some more researching to do.

Thanks again.

[lebinky]

In the grand scheme, I bet few departments have access to ariel surveillance.

That sucks. Kind of shoots down one of the main arguments in my paper. I wonder if I could do a search to see how many dept.s in the US are actively using air surveilance?

[Valor55]

I think massive penalties for attempting to elude police would end most pursuits.

Helicopters are rare except in the largest metropolitan areas.

I think a police activated kill switch installed in every car is too intrusive for America. The EM pulse gun would be great if we could get it to work and it was cheap.

Spike strips are a good tool but the difficulty is predicting where the runner will be and deploying them.

PITT is awesome. I was trained with it in my last agency. My current one forbids its use.

[lebinky]

I think massive penalties for attempting to elude police would end most pursuits.

I agree completly!


Spike strips are a good tool but the difficulty is predicting where the runner will be and deploying them.

I have heard of some new technology that would allow a pursuit car to deploy spike strips from the rear of the vehicle while moving. Of course the pursuit car would still have to get in front of the offender, but I can see where this would still be an advantage for the officer.

PITT is awesome. I was trained with it in my last agency. My current one forbids its use.

Is it forbidden because of liabilty issues?

[lebinky]

My bad Valor I can't get a handle on this quoting thing. My last post was supposed to read something like this:

I agree with you completly on stiffer penalties for eluding!

I have heard of some new technology that would allow a pursuit car to deploy spike strips from the rear of the vehicle while moving. Of course the pursuit car would still have to get in front of the offender, but I can see where this would still be an advantage for the officer.


Is it forbidden because of liabilty issues?



Thanks for the info.

[Valor55]

I think liability and practicality. I'm in a pretty urban area with narrow streets and lots of houses and building close to the street. The idea of intentionally PITing a car and causing it to lose control in such tight confines is causing the city to see lots of lawsuits. We basically have several options, the bad guy wrecks, the bad guy gives up, we spike his tires or call off the pursuit.

[scott715us]

Mass fines/penalties for eluders. We have spike strips (that have been used) at our dept and have been effective.

Also, I have seen in the past that military offers helicopters and other government equipment at dirt-cheap costs to law enforcement agencies so they can afford equipment that may help. Of course, payment to the pilots is another dilemma. I can't remember which channel (TLC maybe), but this one LE agency in Florida that was tiny, had like 4 helicopters that were provided by the military. Probably older helicopters (Huey's, etc), but hey, better than nothing.

[MOCOP]

Yeah but the older the bird the more money you spend on up keep . I know a couple of smaller SO's that looked at ex-military choppers and while the birds were cheap. The money to keep them in the air would have drained the budget.

[R1364]

Deleted by poster

[Valor55]

My old department that trained me on PITT initially considered it deadly force. If there was a PIT IA came, homicide came, and the accident reconstructionists came. Somebody eventually figured out that it wasn't deadly force when done as trained and all the circus road shows quit coming to the scene of every pit.