Ask Officer Michelle – Question #232

Posted by lov2swimnrun

We live in NW Natomas and for the 2nd time in 1 week we have had helicopters flying over and near our neighborhood with police on loud speakers warning people to stay in doors and lock an shut windows, or stay where you are or we’ll release the dogs. This is very disturbing. We did not move here thinking this would be a high crime area, but it seems to be turning into it. We would like to know how we find out why a PD helicopter was out, what was going on, and what kind of crime warrants a PD helicopter to fly around vs just squad cars?

Dear lov2swimnrun,

Many people have expressed those concerns about the police helicopter.  To address that, we are currently working on a real-time helicopter link for our home page of our website. A helicopter image will animate every time the helicopter is airborne, and upon clicking on the image, citizens will be able to see in real-time what activity the helicopter is engaged in. This will be very helpful to citizens who, for example, are unable to understand the pilot’s loudspeaker announcement, or hear the helicopters and would like more information. Citizens will be able to understand the various activities that the helicopter plays a role in, such as assisting in locating missing persons and children.

Right now, if you want to know what happened in your neighborhood, you can find out by going to our web site and click on the “daily activity” link. It is updated every day and may allow you to find out why the helicopter was flying around in your neighborhood. Unfortunately, no neighborhood is immune to crime. The site and sound of the helicopter can be disturbing, but know that the Sacramento Police Department is using all of its tools to include the K-9 units and the helicopter to apprehend suspects. The helicopter is one of our best tools because it allows the pilot an aerial view with a greater visibility of a larger geographic area. The helicopter also affords law enforcement an ability to locate suspects hiding in backyards, and with the heat sensor, many of these dangerous individuals are unable to hide. Performing this task from the ground would be impossible. The helicopter has been tremendously successful in locating both missing persons and fleeing suspects, among the many other things which the Air Unit engages in.

If you want more information about the activities of law enforcement helicopters, check out these informative articles on this blog:

http://blog.sacpd.org/?p=171  and http://blog.sacpd.org/?p=46.

Officer Michelle

This entry was posted on Friday, June 12th, 2009 at 6:01 pm and is filed under Answers From Officer Michelle. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.