Air unit contributes to community’s safety

Thomas Arnold

I would like to take a moment to respond to some of the recent

correspondence regarding the Huntington Beach police helicopter.

I am the aero unit supervisor and have been part of the unit since

1976. Huntington Beach has operated police helicopters since 1968,

which made it the fifth police agency in the entire United States to

use aircraft in a law enforcement role. During the past 34 years, we

have been involved in some incredible operations, from large drug

seizures to firefighting operations, as well as the rescue of

potential drowning victims.

On July 26 crews rescued a 19-year-old woman from a potential

drowning and on the night of Sept. 10 assisted in a major structure

fire, locating firebrands on roofs some distance away from the

original fire scene. If not found by firefighters on the ground,

additional fires could have started, causing hundreds of thousands of

dollars in damage.

Since its inception, the aero bureau has logged 90,000 hours of

flight time resulting in the response to 139,015 calls for service.

The unit has been responsible for 5,501 felony arrests, 8,972

misdemeanor arrests, and 13,248 traffic citations. The helicopter

cleared 24,694 calls prior to ground response allowing those units to

handle higher priority incidents; all this while being the first

police unit at a call 96% of the time.

Many times we will orbit a call for a length of time without the

searchlight activated. Residents should know that we utilize the

Forward-Looking Infra-Red on a majority of our responses and that

equipment does not need external light to operate. What may seem like

aimless orbiting is in reality an intensive search for possible

criminal suspects.

The aero bureau flies 3,000 hours per years, in all weather

conditions, to support all aspects of public safety: police, fire,

and marine safety. Monitoring underground oil pipelines with infra

red and assisting in perimeter surveillance for the Naval Weapons

Station are just some other of the missions we take on. All crews are

sensitive to the noise made by the helicopter and every effort is

made to minimize the impact on the community.

Our community continues to rank among the safest in the United

States and the air support unit is one of the major reasons why.

* SGT. THOMAS ARNOLD is a Huntington Beach resident and the

supervisor of the Huntington Beach Police Department Aero Bureau. To

contribute to “Sounding Off,” e-mail us at hbindy@latimes.com or fax

us at (714)965-7174.