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LAPD helicopter tracker with real-time operating costs

lapdhelicoptertracker.com

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Re: LAPD helicopter tracker with real-time operating costs

#131

Post by tom_ »

hollerith wrote: post #108
brian-armstrong wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Decided to scratch up some peoples' clear coats for a little science experiment?

Could I have damaged the cars even though I saw no signs of damage? It would be nice if someone else with knowledge would chime in here. If this damages cars, then I want to know, so I can stop doing it in the future.

It won't really matter all that much, but it will have done more than 0 damage to the paintwork (since metal is hard and paint is soft). Worth noting that drivers are touchy and emotional, and can't be trusted not to murder you over perceived slights, so it's safest to stick to doing nothing. Stuff something under the windscreen wipers if you really must, and even that is risky.

Re: LAPD helicopter tracker with real-time operating costs

#132

Post by sneak »

Aurornis wrote: post #40
BadBadJellyBean wrote: post #21

I find it interesting that the question is "why don't they use drones". My question is: why so much air surveillance? I live in Germany. The only times I hear a helicopter is if someone is being rescued or if someones missing. I rarely see them at all.

> I live in Germany. The only times I hear a helicopter is if someone is being rescued or if someones missing. I rarely see them at all. Same for me, but I live in America. The specific location matters a lot. The LA area is more population dense and bigger than might be obvious. To put it in perspective, the GDP of the LA area is about 1/4 as much as the GDP of your entire country.

That’s pretty much only because of Hollywood’s film industry. It isn’t comparable otherwise.

Re: LAPD helicopter tracker with real-time operating costs

#134

Post by bradlys »

clnhlzmn wrote: post #130
wredcoll wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I’ve had people just lean against my car when it wasn’t completely clean and completely ruin the paint requiring an entire 5 stage detail Assuming this is true, it seems like something has gone badly wrong somewhere in this process. Why can't cars have paint that survives being "leaned on"

I think the person you replied to probably just has a different definition of "completely ruined" than you or I.

Visible marks from over 20ft away. You tell me.

Re: LAPD helicopter tracker with real-time operating costs

#135

Post by bahmboo »

Aurornis wrote: post #45
asdff wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They get away from time to time from the airship. Two in one week this past august and I don't think they ever caught the suspects. One drove under an overpass and fled on foot, the other entered LAX airspace which requires waiting on clearance from ATC and got away somehow after that. I don't know why they don't just shoot a magnetic dart at the car with a gps tracker on it.

> I don't know why they don't just shoot a magnetic dart at the car with a gps tracker on it. Hitting a car going 100mph with a magnetic dart that and getting it to hit on a metal part, not a window or trim, and specially a steel panel, is not easy at all.

There is a thing called the grappler now. Seems like a reasonable tool: https://policebumper.com/

Re: LAPD helicopter tracker with real-time operating costs

#136

Post by sharts »

BadBadJellyBean wrote: post #21

I find it interesting that the question is "why don't they use drones". My question is: why so much air surveillance? I live in Germany. The only times I hear a helicopter is if someone is being rescued or if someones missing. I rarely see them at all.

Los Angeles is a massive city. To cover that much ground given limited police it’s sort of necessary.

Re: LAPD helicopter tracker with real-time operating costs

#137

Post by Aurornis »

hollerith wrote: post #108
brian-armstrong wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Decided to scratch up some peoples' clear coats for a little science experiment?

Could I have damaged the cars even though I saw no signs of damage? It would be nice if someone else with knowledge would chime in here. If this damages cars, then I want to know, so I can stop doing it in the future.

Unfortunately, yes. Dropping a magnet onto a car and pulling it off, especially if not recently cleaned, will damage the paint to some degree. Maybe not enough for an average person to notice, but you really shouldn’t do this to other people’s cars.

Some people will get snide about anyone who cares about their car’s paint, but as someone who once bought a car I had to save a long time for and spent a lot of time with car care products I would be very sad if I saw you drop a magnet on to it and then pull it off without a second thought. Please don’t.

Re: LAPD helicopter tracker with real-time operating costs

#138

Post by Aurornis »

asdff wrote: post #44
efnx wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would have to be a very special dart. Cars are mostly aluminum and foam. A piercing dart would be dangerous and a magnet would really work.

Outside certain high performance cars, most cars have steel body panels.

It’s more common than that. A lot of cars have aluminum panels now.

Re: LAPD helicopter tracker with real-time operating costs

#139

Post by typewithrhythm »

hatthew wrote: post #37
digdugdirk wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the other hand, I have seen drones chase down F1 cars at 100+ MPH... Realistically though, I agree with your sentiment. Solving this would drones would require a constant flock of something more akin to Predator drones. The better question is - why do we allow high speed pursuit chases in the first place?

As far as I'm aware, high speed drones tend to have quite short flight durations due to battery limitations. Drones that have the range to follow a fleeing suspect for a long time would probably have to be big enough that they could cause a fatal accident if they crash, and in that case I'd rather have a pilot on board. Better reaction time, no risk from jamming, much better field of view/awareness, decades of testin…

Most of the small high speed drones are that size to fit under professional licencing requirements, often so that one racing spec can be viable across a wider area. Leading to significant competition in that size pushing down prices.

Rather than some inherent sized for safety idea.

Jamming might be interesting, I suspect that it's easy enough (and a much bigger crime) to follow a very loud jamming signal though.

Every practical metric a drone surpasses a helicopter; they are so much simpler to operate that you can easily offset any perceived downside with more drones. And you don't get a tested solution without trying it out.

Re: LAPD helicopter tracker with real-time operating costs

#140

Post by Aurornis »

samdoesnothing wrote: post #103
dylan604 wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I genuinely wonder what the cause of this behavior is. Seriously? It's from people not wanting to be arrested and go to jail. If they get away, perfect. If they don't, well, they were going to jail anyways. Now they have a cool story to tell while in jail. These are not people getting pulled over because they rolled a stop sign. These are people doing dirt, know it, and are willing to try something to avoid getting…

I think they're asking why there's such a large population of people willing to commit crimes and then get into high speed chases.

The population in big US cities is very heterogeneous. There isn’t one single culture.

In a city with large population, it only takes a few people willing to commit crimes to make the news.

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