The Fight Against Crime: Notes From The Battlefront : Chopper Helps Keep Police on Ground Safe

It’s just after 10 p.m. on a routine patrol when Los Angeles Police Officer Paul Holmen gets the call from an officer requesting assistance in the darkness of Polk Street and Glenoaks Boulevard in Sylmar.

Two men in their late teens or early 20s, in the process of stripping a stolen maroon Camaro, have fled from police. The officer making the call stands amid small, closely set houses in which residents have already shut themselves in for the night.

He is separated from his partner by several dark homes, he can’t see very well and he reports that he does not know whether the men are armed.

When Holmen and pilot John Harrell arrive on the scene in their police helicopter, they hand the advantage back to the officer.

In some situations, Holmen and Harrell can take the place of 100 police officers; they can cover the ground from downtown Los Angeles to the center of the San Fernando Valley in 10 minutes; and with their 30,000-candlepower spotlight they can turn a midnight street into high noon, leaving the bad guys nowhere to run and few places to hide.

As members of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Air Support Division, their first priority is making sure that officers on the ground make it home every night, but in the process, they catch their share of criminals. Sgt. John Preston, an air watch commander, says that suspects are caught in about 85% of the cases in which a chopper is the first unit to respond to a call.

Once over the sleeping block, Harrell drops down a bit from cruising altitude of 500 feet, swinging into a tight counterclockwise arc around a two- to three-block area. Holmen, the observer, can see better in a leftward bank. He fires up the spotlight.

The only movement below is from the officer who radioed, whose dark uniform makes him look from the chopper like a black ant on its hind legs. Holmen widens and contracts the light’s beam, keeping it off the officer so as not to make him a target.

As other patrol cars pour into the area, several officers head toward a house in the direction in which the suspects ran. Since it is difficult to see addresses in the closed-in area, the officers on the ground direct Holmen’s eye to a blue-trimmed house on the west end of the block.

“That’s it,” says the officer on the ground. “You’ve got your light on it now.”

The patrol officers announce that they’re going into the house. The radio goes silent.

“You put the light on the house, the officers can check the front and I’m keeping my eyes on the back,” Holmen says. “Anyone runs and I’m going to follow them. It keeps the pressure on.”

When operating with a full staff of 35 pilots and 23 observers, the Air Support Division can field three helicopters over Los Angeles 24 hours a day, in addition to special surveillance operations. One copter is responsible for the mid-cities area, one the south side and another, called Air 10, handles the Valley.

But a few sick officers or a major crime means that someplace--usually the Valley, because of its lower crime rate--goes uncovered. A recent test program, which based a copter at Van Nuys Airport instead of Downtown, and reserved it for the Valley, might not be extended, Preston says.

Even at $145 to $230 per hour, depending on the type of helicopter used, the airborne officers maintain that they are more than cost-effective.

They can see more than scores of officers on the ground. And not only can they pursue fleeing criminals at higher speeds, but their chases don’t endanger the driving public.

“You’re not hands-on up here,” Holmen says. “But you get to see the officer crawl back into a black and white. You kept them safe, you helped that officer go back out and arrest. That’s really satisfying.”

After several minutes above the house with the blue trim, the officers on the ground flash their lights at the helicopter. “We think we’ve got them, airship, thanks for your help.”

As the chopper swings out of its orbit and back up to 500 feet, flying with the grace and even motion of a movie’s magic carpet, Holmen responds with his trademark sign-off: “Good work, guys. Have a good night and keep it safe.”