How Much Does It Cost To Apply For A Police Helicopter?

I. Summary 

Efforts to provide quality safety and security services forces the police departments to keep at par with the latest technologies in the operations. Utilization of technological advancements easies their work in areas of preparedness, communication, transport, and rapidness in their response to emergencies (Hess, Orthmann & Cho, 2013). Regarding the application of these technological innovations, questions stay about their need in law requirement. Police offices under financial limitations must make intense decisions about whether a specific innovation merits the cost. Several factors are imperative for consideration in the determination of whether application of a certain technology in police operation is cost effective. The present paper analysis the case of the cost of using of helicopters in urban areas as one of technological innovation utilization in police operation. 

II. Problem 

The problem is that police departments are finding it expensive to run and dispatch helicopters for police operations in urban areas. Helicopters are applicable in the event where is need for a high-speed pursuit, emergence response, and a backup plan to a ground unit. Additionally, helicopters good surveillance and tracing of individuals and objects which ground units cannot find. However, maintenance of a helicopter unit by police units is expensive and in some instances not worth the costs. The following sections provides possible alternatives to this problem. 

III. Significance of the Problem 

Law implementation organizations are helped by the vision, adaptability, and speed of helicopters. The adaptability of helicopters is found in its capacity to follow suspects, clock speeding autos, protect jeopardized nationals, give data, and bolster officers on the ground. Adaptability can likewise be found in the helicopters capacity to arrive on an assortment of surfaces, including the boulevards, ground, water, and rooftops ( Marrone, & Nones, 2015). However, there are huge costs associated with the application of helicopters. These expenses include the cost of hiring and maintain flight personnel and pilots, initial buying costs, fuel, and other maintenance costs. There is, therefore, the need to devise proper methods to either replace the use of helicopters or provide strategies in their application to minimize the entire costs of their application as illustrated above. The following sections develops alternative possible for achieving the objective. 

IV. Development of Alternative Actions 

There are several possible solutions to the cost of police helicopter use. However, the present analysis will consider two of the most efficient solutions or alternatives to the use of police helicopters and noise effect as illustrated below. 

1. Using non-grid wing and fixed-wing aircrafts. Fixed-wing aircrafts and non-grid ones are less expensive to maintain compared to helicopters. These aircrafts also have the advantages of flying higher altitude making better surveillance than the helicopters (Marrone & Nones, 2015). Fixed wing aircrafts are also less noisy, have high capacity, and can go for longer flight time than helicopters. However, these type of aircrafts are highly affected by changes in weather conditions unlike helicopters. 

2. Use of unmanned drones. Drones can be propelled to any point using ground-based control stations and are not much expensive to run and maintain unlike helicopters. 

V. Recommendations 

All said and done, the present paper recommends the use of a different and cheap system to conduct police surveillance as well as providing support during operations. Recommendations are given on the use of surveillance cameras with control stations on ground. These cameras can be mounted on skyscrapers and sufficiently tall buildings for their safety. Apart from the reduction in the cost of police operations, the cameras are more efficient in operations unlike aircrafts in which suspects will not be aware they are being watched. 

References 

Hess, K., Orthmann, C., & Cho, H. (2013).  Police Operations: Theory and Practice  (6th ed.). Cengage Learning. 

Marrone, A., & Nones, M. (2015).  The role of dual-use helicopters in the security and defence field .