Boston's police patrols gaining bird's-eye view; To ride in copters with state troopers

[<rms () computerbytesman com>]

"he saw firsthand the benefit of helicopter assistance to ground troops in
Iraq and concluded that a helicopter could provide similar aid to police on
the streets of Boston." 

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/03/23/bostons_police_patrols_
gaining_birds_eye_view/

Boston's police patrols gaining bird's-eye view
To ride in copters with state troopers
By Brian McGrory, Globe Staff  |  March 23, 2007

Boston police officers already patrol the city on foot, in cruisers, on
horseback, on bicycles, and on motorcycles. Starting next month, the
department will add another mode of transit: a helicopter.

Police officials, prodded by a sergeant who had just returned from a stint
as a combat pilot in Iraq, will regularly patrol the city from a State
Police copter. The plan is to have an aircraft in the skies several evenings
a week by mid-April, with Boston police officers working side by side with
the state troopers who fly the helicopters.

"We want to add it into our crime-fighting strategy," Deputy Superintendent
Daniel P. Linskey said by phone yesterday. "I would love to have a
helicopter up, so when shots come in on our new acoustic gunshot technology
. . . you have the chopper in the area. There might be four kids running
away. The chopper can say, 'There they are.'

"I'm told they have an uncanny ability to identify a suspect leaving a crime
scene," Linskey added. "It's the guy not looking up at the helicopter,
walking away with his head tucked down."

Boston police are already girding for criticism about noise and intrusion
from city residents who are now accustomed to having copters whirring
overhead only in the case of a manhunt or disaster. The sky patrols are
being planned amid a surge of homicides in several neighborhoods.

"We're going to do some outreach," Linskey said. "We want to go out to
community groups and say: 'We're going out and putting an officer in a
helicopter. Somebody's watching from above.'

"It's not a negative like a prison escape. Once people understand it,
they'll feel comfortable about it."

Said Boston Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis: "There needs to be a public
notification campaign. People will be afraid if it just swoops into a
neighborhood and they don't know what it's about."

Boston police officials cite studies of other cities that indicate there was
a 30 percent drop in street crime in areas regularly monitored from
aircraft. The helicopters will be tuned to the Boston police radio
frequency, to allow them to respond to crime. They will also be used for
surveillance, in car chases, pursuits on foot, and, with their sweeping
floodlights, will provide illumination during night operations.

The State Police copters are equipped with night vision technology and video
downlink capabilities that will allow Boston officers on the ground to have
the same view as the crew in the sky.

After months of conversation between the two departments, three Boston
police officers will begin training Monday with State Police counterparts.

Officers from the two departments will share the intricacies of helicopter
operations, city geography, and command organizations, as well as the call
signs and terminology specific to each force, because the copters will be
tuned to Boston police radio frequencies.

Law enforcement officials said the State Police will not charge the city for
flying time, fuel, or personnel. The State Police air wing has a fleet of
five copters operating out of Plymouth, Chicopee, and Lawrence.

"We're very happy to do it," said Detective Lieutenant William Powers, a
State Police spokesman. "This was a step that I don't think you're going to
hear anyone say anything negative about."

The idea for the unit was launched when Boston police Sergeant Joel McCarthy
returned to the department after a yearlong tour as an Army pilot in Iraq
last year.

He flew more than 500 hours of combat missions in a Black Hawk from his
airbase about 60 miles north of Baghdad. He flew day and night and was, in
his words, "lucky enough to be everywhere in the country."

In the process, he saw firsthand the benefit of helicopter assistance to
ground troops in Iraq and concluded that a helicopter could provide similar
aid to police on the streets of Boston.

"The vantage point alone makes it worthwhile," McCarthy said yesterday.
"Surveillance is 15 times greater. You can see on rooftops and around
corners."

McCarthy reached out to members of the State Police air wing, who expressed
a desire to help in Boston. He then wrote a detailed memo and approached
Linskey, who, in turn, sent him in to meet the new commissioner, Davis.

"He's a war hero," Davis said of McCarthy. "I was thrilled to be able to
speak to someone who had that kind of experience, in our own ranks. His idea
to utilize it to assist in searches, pursuits, investigations, patrol was
well thought out."

Davis signed off. Word spread around the department about the new unit.

Upwards of two dozen officers put in for a seat on the helicopter, prompting
Linskey to joke: "We need to get a 747. We have that many people who want to
be assigned to the copter."

McCarthy will lead the three- member unit. Though he is a pilot, the
aircraft will be flown by state troopers. Typically on an evening patrol,
there will be two troopers and a Boston police officer on board and one
copter in the air .

How long the program will last is an open question, though Powers of the
State Police said he believed it would continue through the summer.

Boston officials point out that cities across the nation already use
helicopters as a patrol strategy, including New York, Los Angeles, Houston,
Baltimore, Chicago, and Oakland.

Boston police are buying flight equipment for members of the unit. Because
the State Police fleet is based outside the city, officials are looking to
use a landing pad at Boston Medical Center or open space in Franklin Park to
touch down.

One potential pitfall: "If there's a call [about] a missing child somewhere
else in the state and there's a Boston officer in the back seat, he's going
for a ride," Powers said.


_______________________________________________
Fun and Misc security discussion for OT posts.
https://linuxbox.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/funsec
Note: funsec is a public and open mailing list.