Cities to Renegotiate Sharing of Police Helicopter

Newport Beach and Costa Mesa city officials will renegotiate Monday an agreement for sharing their police helicopters.

The cities decided to confer after the county and Huntington Beach said that as of last Monday, they would be pulling out of the airborne law enforcement services program.

The rare joint study session between the two city councils will be at 4 p.m. at the Neighborhood Community Center, 1845 Park Ave., in Costa Mesa.

The Newport Beach City Council will meet at 7 p.m. at City Hall, 3300 Newport Blvd., to vote on the issue. Costa Mesa is expected to take action at its next City Council meeting in two weeks.

Each city has been analyzing the costs and benefits of reorganizing their airborne police operations.

“We want to continue a joint approach to providing services by combining our resources,” Sgt. John Desmond said.

The two city police departments recommend a cost-savings plan that entails selling two of its four helicopters to purchase a new one. Under the revised program, the three-helicopter unit would provide 18 hours of coverage with 10 hours of flight time every day. The helicopter unit will also reduce the number of its personnel from 10 to seven officers, Desmond said.

Huntington Beach and the Orange County Sheriff’s Department withdrew from AirBorne Law Enforcement Services, known as ABLE, because the program was too costly, officials said.

One of the program’s aims has been to reduce operating costs for participating agencies by offering helicopter services to other Orange County cities. The proceeds from that service were projected to offset most operating costs, officials said.

Many of the cities that lack helicopter service were expected to contract with ABLE but couldn’t afford to join, officials said.