Gripes : LAPD Choppers: ‘Compounding the Tension’

3 a.m. My walls shook. White light poured through the bedroom window. The noise was unmistakable. Above my apartment building, a Los Angeles police helicopter hovered. Was it going to land on the roof? I ran to the front door and, from my doorstep, looked up at this massive bird. Suddenly, its searchlight singled me out, blinding me momentarily. The sky might well have opened as, over the copter’s speakers, a voice commanded me to get back inside.

What that helicopter’s mission was, who it was after, remains a mystery.

Hearing LAPD helicopters circle overhead is a nightly phenomenon over much of the Los Angeles basin, even in middle-class neighborhoods like my own. If it were only the noise, if they would only pass on by like all the other disruptions that people in Los Angeles or any big city endure, but instead the helicopters contribute to the perception that something is very wrong with this city.

Their circular flight patterns have a way of making people feel as if they’re smack in the center of a crime drama. They get under people’s skin in a way that the soaring crime statistics can’t.

Los Angeles has opted for high-tech solutions to crime. Consequently, it has one of the smallest police forces per capita of any large American city, even when expansion plans are figured in. But does the technology truly contribute to the apprehension of more criminals? It’s difficult not to suspect that an overextended police force is desperately trying to make the hand of the law seem like it’s everywhere.

Historically, police have sought to project their authority, even fear. They’ve taken to wearing dark uniforms and glistening metal badges; carrying mean-looking batons and giant side arms; driving fast cars and using ear-splitting sirens. But the helicopter transcends all of this.

In simpler times, a police car used to whiz by, its siren wailing. It might even stop nearby, though usually it was merely passing through.

Yet today, every time the helicopters hover and circle overhead I’m reminded of my anxieties. I was insecure before the Los Angeles riots. Now the sight and sound of helicopters above compounds the tension. They bring a sense of immediacy to the crime. They make it feel local, even next door. They bring my fears home. I wonder just how safe my neighborhood is.

At a time when public confidence in the safety of this city is surely at an all time low, this high-tech approach to law enforcement may be reinforcing our insecurities. It may be feeding our collective sense of alienation and contributing to an unhealthy psychology.