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LAPD helicopter tracker with real-time operating costs
11–20 of 317 posts
Re: LAPD helicopter tracker with real-time operating costs
#12As someone who lives in central LA and has them circle my neighborhood frequently, actually shaking my house, I think this is awesome. These needs should be filled by drones. Way less noisy, dangerous and expensive.
why LA is spending thousands/hour when drones exist is crazy.
You're talking about technology that's only become realistic in the last couple years. Even then, there's probably nothing off-the-shelf that would serve the current need.
LAPD has been patrolling with helicopters for decades. I have yet to see a drone follow a car in high speed pursuit down the 5 at 100+ MPH.
Re: LAPD helicopter tracker with real-time operating costs
#13As someone who lives in central LA and has them circle my neighborhood frequently, actually shaking my house, I think this is awesome. These needs should be filled by drones. Way less noisy, dangerous and expensive.
Couldn’t someone take out the drones pretty easily?
Re: LAPD helicopter tracker with real-time operating costs
#14As someone who lives in central LA and has them circle my neighborhood frequently, actually shaking my house, I think this is awesome. These needs should be filled by drones. Way less noisy, dangerous and expensive.
Idk, having a bunch of government surveillance drones doesn't really sound great... Maybe we just don't need this level of surveillance at all?
It's absolutely worth looking at the ROI on these flights and weighing that against the intrusion on our privacy/freedom. No doubt they'll always need drones and helicopters but I'd be surprised if there was any real need for them to be in the air that often. I think that's a question that should be asked everywhere but the LAPD in particular are terrible enough that it makes this a great place to start.
Re: LAPD helicopter tracker with real-time operating costs
#15Would using drones nowadays end up being much less expensive but with all the same necessary capabilities for police work?
What are the necessary capabilities? My city has no helicopters or drones. There's a medical chopper that flies over my house regularly, but it has an obvious purpose.
Being able to follow a car involved in a hit and run and intercept them when they stop without restoring to what could be a dangerous police chase.
Aerial surveillance has it's place.
Re: LAPD helicopter tracker with real-time operating costs
#16My first question was how much of this is labor, and from the chart provided at the bottom of the helpful link provided elsewhere (https://controller.lacity.gov/landings/lapd-helicopters), it appears to be around 60%.
I was wondering because I remember the last time I lived in Los Angeles in 2009 I went to a Lakers championship parade and talked to one of the cops assigned to crowd control, and asked about it when a helicopter flew overhead. She told me it's a great job a lot of them try to get because even 20 years ago they were starting out at something like $215,000 a year and were not expected to have any flight experience. The city just trained up regular patrol officers and tripled their pay.
Re: LAPD helicopter tracker with real-time operating costs
#17As someone who lives in central LA and has them circle my neighborhood frequently, actually shaking my house, I think this is awesome. These needs should be filled by drones. Way less noisy, dangerous and expensive.
Down in SD at least, the sheriff's office helicopters serve many purposes. They'll use them for firefighting, hike rescues (often! according to their IG), first responder to an aviation accident, loudly shouting garbled messages through their loudspeaker, etc.
There's just enough high-speed/timely crime here that I prefer they use these over drones. There's some extra legal protections built into helicopters that drones don't get, like prison time if some idiot points a laser pointer.
Re: LAPD helicopter tracker with real-time operating costs
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
What are the necessary capabilities? My city has no helicopters or drones. There's a medical chopper that flies over my house regularly, but it has an obvious purpose.
Being able to follow a car involved in a hit and run and intercept them when they stop without restoring to what could be a dangerous police chase. Aerial surveillance has it's place.
> Aerial surveillance has it's place.
It does, but I would be very surprised if the LAPD knew its place or cared to keep it there to prevent it from wandering into places that are totally unnecessary and expensive invasions of our privacy.
Re: LAPD helicopter tracker with real-time operating costs
#19Roughly a dollar a second which if you are a theater kid you know is about
$31,536,000 mil a year.
Honestly not that bad considering it provides a real service. I mean how much does the city spend on lawsuits against corrupt cops and other employees. According to the budget something like $300 MILLION on lawsuit payouts last year alone.
Who gives a $hit about the helicopters. Build an app that tracks the employees causing these lawsuits that are still keeping their jobs.
Re: LAPD helicopter tracker with real-time operating costs
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
why LA is spending thousands/hour when drones exist is crazy.
You're talking about technology that's only become realistic in the last couple years. Even then, there's probably nothing off-the-shelf that would serve the current need. LAPD has been patrolling with helicopters for decades . I have yet to see a drone follow a car in high speed pursuit down the 5 at 100+ MPH.
The MQ-8 would be cheaper to operate.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_Grumman_MQ-8_Fire_Sco...