Police Flying Quieter Skies in New Copters

For years, the police helicopters were so loud they kept Glendale and Burbank residents awake during late night operations.

Now they’re so quiet that some wonder if the police choppers are patrolling at all.

But mostly, say officers from the Burbank and Glendale police departments, residents compliment them on two newer, quieter craft the departments bought and now share to patrol the largely residential cities.

“One of the benefits to citizenry is that it is a much quieter aircraft,” said Sgt. Bruce Speirs, the chief pilot in the Burbank Police Department’s Air Support Unit.

The Burbank and Glendale departments share the same out-of-the-way hangar at Burbank Airport. Each department has two helicopters, one of the older, noisier models and one of the quieter new McDonnell Douglas NOTARs, short for “no tail rotor.”

Glendale and Burbank were the first law enforcement agencies in California to begin using those helicopters when they bought them in 1992, said Sgt. Ron Allison, of the Glendale Air Support Unit. Even today, only a handful of agencies have them, including the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, which has three.

When Glendale and Burbank considered buying them, noise reduction was their chief consideration.

“We’re trying to protect the citizens as best as we can without disturbing them,” Allison said.

The choppers substitute a fan inside the tail for the tail rotor--the main source of noise in traditional helicopters--making them the quietest in the world, Allison said. They have been such a hit with the community that the departments plan to replace their remaining helicopters in the coming year with the NOTAR, formally designated the McDonnell Douglas 520N.

The response from the community, especially those who originally complained about police copter noise, has been positive, Allison and Speirs said.

“We really love your helicopter. This one is so quiet,” Speirs said he has been told by residents.

Unlike the tail-rotored machines which can be heard coming from miles away, NOTARs often aren’t heard until they are overhead, Speirs said.

Another feature of the NOTARs is the improved safety for pilots and residents.

The lack of a tail rotor reduces the hazard of the chopper striking a structure or objects nearby--a feature that is particularly important to Glendale and Burbank law enforcement pilots who often fly into the narrow canyons behind the cities.

It also allows pilots on emergency calls to take off and land more quickly because they don’t have to worry about striking objects with the tail rotor, Allison said.

The Burbank and Glendale units work closely with each other, the officers say. In fact, about the only thing the units don’t share is their annual budget, $1.1 million each.

Each flies 1,500 hours a year with a staff of six officers. All the officers respond to calls from either city, providing residents with “double the coverage for half the money,” Allison said.

Last year, the air units arrived at crime scenes before ground patrols more than 75% of the time, Allison said. They participated in 7,262 service calls, 235 felony arrests and 107 misdemeanor arrests.

And they don’t want to annoy the citizens on the ground with that whup-whup-whup noise, if they can avoid it.

“We would not be in business if the citizens didn’t support us,” Allison said.