Going ‘Round and ‘Round on Choppers : Police Praise Them but Copter Pools Haven’t Caught On

When a Costa Mesa police helicopter whirs over the city by day, it is called Eagle I. When it takes to the skies at night, its moniker becomes Eagle III.

Until two years ago, the night shift copter was known as Eagle II. But that name conjures up bitter memories for the crew members who fly the machines in Orange County. The name Eagle II was retired in memory of the three men who died when a Costa Mesa police helicopter collided in the air with a Newport Beach police chopper in March, 1987.

Although the name change provides a ready reminder of the hazards of police helicopter work, police departments in the county have been undaunted in pressing forward to start or expand aerial patrols:

- Santa Ana increased the helicopter coverage it receives on a contract basis from Costa Mesa Police as of last Sunday. Instead of flying three times a week, the patrols, formerly made three times a week, are now made nightly. Duty is rotated among three Santa Ana officers to accompany the Costa Mesa police pilots as observers.

- The Brea Police Department has for the last three months been studying the feasibility of starting its own helicopter patrol.

- Some police departments are planning to beef up or modernize their helicopter fleets. Costa Mesa plans to add another four-seat helicopter with some of the money it receives from its contract with Santa Ana. Newport Beach police plan to replace an older copter with money realized from the sale of assets seized from drug dealers. And Huntington Beach--which 20 years ago was the first Orange County police agency with helicopter service--ordered two new advanced helicopters that will be available in two years.

12 Available

All told, there are 12 police helicopters available for duty among five law enforcement agencies in Orange County. All but two--the Orange County Sheriff’s Department copters known as Duke I and Duke II--are used in cities in the northern section of the county. There have been years of talk about the advantages of creating helicopter pools for routine patrols, but a Huntington Beach police captain who has studied the issue said such an arrangement appears years away because of questions about how it would be implemented.

Santa Ana, however, has taken the first step. The contract by which Costa Mesa will receive as much as $200,000 a year allows Santa Ana to have police helicopter patrols that use its own officers as observers--at a fraction of what it would cost to buy helicopters and train its own crew. (Newport Beach, for example, spends $490,000 a year on its helicopters, and that figure does not take into account the crew members’ salaries.) New turbine-powered machines can cost up to $700,000, police helicopter officials said, and, of course, the maintenance, fuel and associated training would be extra.

Santa Ana Police Chief Paul Walters said the agreement with Costa Mesa proved successful during a yearlong test of patrols on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights.

“We tried it on a test basis for three days a week,” Walters said. “We evaluated it closely and found it very beneficial.”

Costa Mesa Sgt. Bill Bechtel, who helps supervise his department’s helicopter operations, said the the money will be applied to the purchase of another McDonnell Douglas 500E, the black-and-white sedan of the skies. Having another copter will help reduce “down” time because of maintenance, he said, and it could also mean that two helicopters could be in the air at once serving both Costa Mesa and Santa Ana.

Adding to the patrol area will not affect response time significantly, Bechtel added, contending that the copters would still be able to get to just about any spot in five minutes or less.

In what also could become a law-enforcement trend, Newport Beach is planning to pay the $600,000 price for a new helicopter with funds obtained from the sale of assets seized from drug dealers, Newport Beach Officer Bob Oakley said.

Officials in local police departments say the machines have proved their worth time and again and that new uses for them are being found all the time.

Bechtel said the Costa Mesa one answers more than 400 radio calls for assistance a month and was directly responsible for 174 arrests made in the 12-month period ended July 31. (Figures for drunk drivers are not included in this tally.)

Huntington Beach police say their copters are especially useful in spotting traffic violations. Should an officer in a helicopter suspect that a particular motorist has run a red light, for example, he can direct an officer in a patrol car below to stop the vehicle.

700 Tickets a Year

“We write 700 tickets a year,” boasted Huntington Beach Police Sgt. Jeff King.

Helicopter officials shy away, however, from drawing direct comparisons to the productivity of helicopter versus ground units. “It’s kind of hard to compare the effect of something that can’t do comparable functions,” Oakley of Newport Beach said.

For instance, finding people hiding at night is something police helicopters are specially equipped for--there are the spotlights and the infrared scopes in the cockpit. The infrared is especially helpful; with it, officers can tell which cars in a parking lot were driven most recently because the device can detect heat from the engines.

The infrared equipment’s abilities have even astonished other officers, Bechtel said. In one recent case, he said, he was directing ground officers to an auto theft suspect whom they thought was lying in a field that had been thoroughly searched, eluding even the noses of police dogs.

On the infrared scope, however, the suspect “glowed like a light bulb” on the monitoring screen. The officers on the ground were incredulous, though, until the helicopter beamed its light on the suspect. That, Bechtel said, sent the suspect scampering off into a nearby auto mall; the officers chased him and eventually were able to arrest him.

A Few Complaints

Helicopter officials said the noise from low-flying police helicopters sometimes brings complaints from residents, but King said people usually are more understanding when they are told why the helicopter was there.

Some of the police agencies have taken steps to control noise. Shortly after the Orange County Sheriff’s Department began using them, the copters’ tail rotors were replaced with quieter blades, a sheriff’s spokesman said.

Despite their usefulness, agencies have hesitated to pool their helicopter patrols because of financial and logistical concerns. Although the five agencies routinely answer emergency calls from neighboring police departments that do not have helicopters, Santa Ana is the only department to pay for the use of another city’s whirlybird.

Huntington Beach bases its copter on Gothard Street in a rural area, but each of the other agencies operates out of John Wayne Airport.

Huntington Beach Capt. Merle Schneblin, who recently completed a report on the pooling issue as part of a management study course, said that agencies refuse to come to terms with the idea of consolidating resources.

Mixed Response

Schneblin said he found “a lot of feelings for it, a lot of feelings against it” when he recently brought police officials together to discuss the issue. He predicted that officials will not seriously consider it, however, until a serious budget crunch or a disaster proves the wisdom of having areawide copter patrols.

“It’s probably going to take some catastrophe . . . to force the issue,” he said.

Westminster Police Chief Jim Cook said that his department might be interested in a joint helicopter agency but that it has no plans to start its own service.

“They are very expensive. . . . I think they are very good programs, but they are not on our list of priorities in the future,” Cook said.

And Fullerton Police Capt. Richard Kvancz said that his department has informally been discussing the possibility of adding a helicopter for years, even joining in a joint agency of cities in the area. But he also expressed concern about the expense. “It’s very expensive, not only the initial costs but the maintenance and additional training.”

LAW ENFORCEMENT HELICOPTER FLEETS

Started Department Aircraft On Order Crew Service Anaheim 3 0 6 1972 Costa Mesa 2 1 6 1970 Huntington Beach 3 *2 7 1969 Newport Beach 2 *1 7 1971 O.C. Sheriff 2 0 7 1985 Santa Ana ** -- -- 3 1988

* Will replace existing craft ** Shares with Costa Mesa Source: Department officials