I spent a shift alongside a pair of cops with amazing eyesight. Their vision of what’s happening on the ground was enhanced with 1,500 feet of elevation and gyroscopic binoculars along with Forward Looking Infrared technology and Night Sun illumination.
These cops surveil bad guys from a fast, highly maneuverable, $2.2-million Eurocopter EC-120B Colibri chopper. Known as ‘Air-One,’ this police asset patrols the Lower Mainland of BC from the air – including Vancouver, Surrey and elsewhere in the region.
Their list of duties has them responding instantly to in-progress crime and life-threatening emergencies while seeking out dangerous drivers and others hazards during their routine flight time. My shift brought more than its share of both.
Upon departure from the Vancouver International Airport, we were bound for a couple of addresses in the municipality of Surrey. Our task was to seek out a vehicle that had led the police on a high-speed car chase several municipalities away. The licence plate showed an address in Surrey for the registered owner, plus police records revealed a second property the vehicle was associated to.
Within minutes, we were circling overhead while Dave, the Tactical Flight Officer, used the gyro binos to scan yards and driveways. Not there, we concluded. Our mission gave us a bird’s eye view of the suspect’s neighbourhood and enabled us to scan the local streets in search of the offending vehicle. This process would have been far more time-consuming for the uniforms on the street.
A short time later, we were called to the Patullo Bridge, a major link that spans the Fraser River, connecting New Westminster to Surrey, BC. Here, we observed a suicidal man standing on the wrong side of the railing at mid-span. He was clutching the railing with one hand while flailing his free arm and leg hundreds of feet above the swiftly moving river.
Our role was to keep him in sight. Should he take the deadly plunge, we would attempt to spot him upon surfacing; given the fierce current, that could be far down the river. Two rescue boats were standing by to be directed to his location if need be.
After orbiting around the bridge for 75 minutes, we were in need of fuel and had to break away. Fortunately, the skilled police negotiators on-scene managed to convince the man to climb back onto the bridge after two hours of dangling from the railing.
Our next assignment was to search for a red Aerostar van seen escaping from a residential break-and-enter. Again, we had a possible address. Dave entered the address into the computer and a straight line instantly linked our helicopter with the target address on the GPS screen. And away we flew.
Once over the area, we directed two patrol cars into the narrow streets to check two possible suspect vehicles that we located parked nearby and a third vehicle that was mobile in the hood.
I was amazed at the rapidity of acquiring target locations and the panorama one sees from the air once overhead. Vehicles can be followed indefinitely, and there’s no opportunity to pull a fast one to evade the cops. Even on foot, escaping the helicopter is nearly impossible.
Erratic drivers and speeders stand out from the air like ground beacons flashing for attention. When these are spotted, such as two motorcycles recently caught racing down the freeway, ground units are vectored-in to perform a takedown. And best of all, the unsafe driving is recorded from the helicopter, making a highly persuasive video for the judge to view.
Patrolling from the sky is an enormously effective means of leveraging what two police officers can do to make our roads safe and to keep our communities free of crime. Day or night, over the streets of BC’s Lower Mainland sky cops are in the air with sophisticated equipment and cutting-edge technology in search of unsafe motorists and dangerous criminals – and wow, they are effective!
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| Photo: Rob Rothwell/Auto123.com |
These cops surveil bad guys from a fast, highly maneuverable, $2.2-million Eurocopter EC-120B Colibri chopper. Known as ‘Air-One,’ this police asset patrols the Lower Mainland of BC from the air – including Vancouver, Surrey and elsewhere in the region.
Their list of duties has them responding instantly to in-progress crime and life-threatening emergencies while seeking out dangerous drivers and others hazards during their routine flight time. My shift brought more than its share of both.
Upon departure from the Vancouver International Airport, we were bound for a couple of addresses in the municipality of Surrey. Our task was to seek out a vehicle that had led the police on a high-speed car chase several municipalities away. The licence plate showed an address in Surrey for the registered owner, plus police records revealed a second property the vehicle was associated to.
Within minutes, we were circling overhead while Dave, the Tactical Flight Officer, used the gyro binos to scan yards and driveways. Not there, we concluded. Our mission gave us a bird’s eye view of the suspect’s neighbourhood and enabled us to scan the local streets in search of the offending vehicle. This process would have been far more time-consuming for the uniforms on the street.
A short time later, we were called to the Patullo Bridge, a major link that spans the Fraser River, connecting New Westminster to Surrey, BC. Here, we observed a suicidal man standing on the wrong side of the railing at mid-span. He was clutching the railing with one hand while flailing his free arm and leg hundreds of feet above the swiftly moving river.
Our role was to keep him in sight. Should he take the deadly plunge, we would attempt to spot him upon surfacing; given the fierce current, that could be far down the river. Two rescue boats were standing by to be directed to his location if need be.
After orbiting around the bridge for 75 minutes, we were in need of fuel and had to break away. Fortunately, the skilled police negotiators on-scene managed to convince the man to climb back onto the bridge after two hours of dangling from the railing.
 |
| Photo: Rob Rothwell/Auto123.com |
Our next assignment was to search for a red Aerostar van seen escaping from a residential break-and-enter. Again, we had a possible address. Dave entered the address into the computer and a straight line instantly linked our helicopter with the target address on the GPS screen. And away we flew.
Once over the area, we directed two patrol cars into the narrow streets to check two possible suspect vehicles that we located parked nearby and a third vehicle that was mobile in the hood.
 |
| Photo: Rob Rothwell/Auto123.com |
I was amazed at the rapidity of acquiring target locations and the panorama one sees from the air once overhead. Vehicles can be followed indefinitely, and there’s no opportunity to pull a fast one to evade the cops. Even on foot, escaping the helicopter is nearly impossible.
Erratic drivers and speeders stand out from the air like ground beacons flashing for attention. When these are spotted, such as two motorcycles recently caught racing down the freeway, ground units are vectored-in to perform a takedown. And best of all, the unsafe driving is recorded from the helicopter, making a highly persuasive video for the judge to view.
Patrolling from the sky is an enormously effective means of leveraging what two police officers can do to make our roads safe and to keep our communities free of crime. Day or night, over the streets of BC’s Lower Mainland sky cops are in the air with sophisticated equipment and cutting-edge technology in search of unsafe motorists and dangerous criminals – and wow, they are effective!