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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

#181

Post by free_bip »

mike_d wrote: post #177
0xbadcafebee wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That 46 million could be spent on education, transportation, aid for low-income families, the homeless, jobs programs, small business tax breaks, infrastructure renewal, public works, etc. According to the report, not only are they largely not used for anything productive, there's potential harms to both people and the environment. And as many have pointed out, the same work can be done with drones.

The report is wrong. If you bother to watch LA news you'll see they are used a few times a night to track vehicles from the air. This frees up ground units and avoids high speed chases which saves lives. It's fun to call this a waste of taxpayer dollars until you watch a carjacked vehicle recovered with kids inside.

Do you really need 17 helicopters and 90 employees for the occasional car chase? This feels wildly over the top. They could do that just fine with one third the resources.

Re: LAPD helicopter tracker with real-time operating costs

#182

Post by zkmon »

It's just a matter of striking a balance between "what a waste" and "what a lack of law and order". So, like a pendulum swing, cut down all spending drastically, until people scream "where is government?" and then swing backwards, until they cry "what a waste". Keep swinging back and forth until you find the local minima. Wait, am I talking about gradient descent?

Re: LAPD helicopter tracker with real-time operating costs

#183

Post by dmurray »

zimpenfish wrote: post #145
c420 wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm going to guess... because we can? Police here are willing to chase for almost anything in most jurisdictions. I bet there are restrictions on what constitutes a chasable offense in the rest of the world.

> I bet there are restrictions on what constitutes a chasable offense in the rest of the world. UK has stuff like [0] which contains a whole bunch of "is it worth it?" considerations. Also if a chase causes a death, the officer(s) can be prosecuted[1] - I suspect the nonsense of "qualified immunity" means there's no risk to a US officer for initiating a chase that ends in death. [0] https://www.college.police.uk/app/…

In Ireland, the police (and the public) look on the UK regime with envy.

After this case [0] the standing orders are that it's basically never worth it, you risk a prosecution no matter what the circumstances.

[0] https://m.independent.ie/irish-news/courts/garda-charged-aft...

Re: LAPD helicopter tracker with real-time operating costs

#184

Post by chmod775 »

c0balt wrote: post #43
embedding-shape wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where in Germany though? Helicopters tend to be more popular to use for various purposes in very densely populated places, like Hong Kong or New York City, but you don't really see them much in rural areas except for emergencies.

At least for Berlin I can attest that helicopters, outside of the yellow ones for emergency care, are a very rare occurrence. I have yet so see a police helicopter outside of a large demonstration.

They're used in Berlin, though they're surprisingly quiet compared to the emergency care ones. Maybe flying higher? Here's their POV:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/U3mncVE1TQ0

Unsurprisingly, the comments are mostly making fun of them for wasting tax money on hunting down some guys with spray bottles.

Re: LAPD helicopter tracker with real-time operating costs

#185

Post by cenamus »

themafia wrote: post #170
BadBadJellyBean wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then why do you have so many car chases? That seems like an odd problem. There must be a reason.

Population density. In other countries they have a lot of motorcycle chases, and a lot more motorcycle based crime, but it's a crime of opportunity, which is created by highly dense and interwoven urban cores.

European cities are small? You don't hear about many chases in Berlin/Paris/London, do you?

Re: LAPD helicopter tracker with real-time operating costs

#186

Post by jdibs »

cenamus wrote: post #185
themafia wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Population density. In other countries they have a lot of motorcycle chases, and a lot more motorcycle based crime, but it's a crime of opportunity, which is created by highly dense and interwoven urban cores.

European cities are small? You don't hear about many chases in Berlin/Paris/London, do you?

[flagged]

Re: LAPD helicopter tracker with real-time operating costs

#188

Post by mschuster91 »

twelvedogs wrote: post #102
BadBadJellyBean wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then why do you have so many car chases? That seems like an odd problem. There must be a reason.

police will chase in the US for really any reason, kinda dumb when they have your plates they can just mail you a fine john oliver did a whole thing on it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8ygQ2wEwJw

> kinda dumb when they have your plates they can just mail you a fine

thing is, in Germany and many other European countries there's a mandate to register your place of residence with the authorities in a timely manner (i.e. 2 weeks after moving in).

Americans and Brits don't have that, so "mail them a fine" is most likely going to result in the letter not arriving where it should.

Re: LAPD helicopter tracker with real-time operating costs

#189

Post by yreg »

dns_snek wrote: post #176
closeparen wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These are trivial matters in that the penalties are minor, not that they are optional.

Of course they're not optional, but you shouldn't be starting a high speed pursuit over a seat belt violation, or for someone going 5 over the speed limit. Principle of proportionality should apply, you shouldn't be risking the lives of the public over anything but the most serious offences where them getting away poses a greater threat to the public than potentially killing a bystander.

It goes the other way as well. It is dumb to run away from police when they stop you for minor infraction and face a very high chance of getting caught and getting into a major problem. At least I would hope that the penalties for running away are very serious.

The police officers don't know why you are running away and can reasonably expect that there is something wrong other than an unbuckled seat belt -> a kidnapped person, tons of drugs in the trunk, a wanted murderer driving, etc.

Well at least in my country where chases are rare. I understand in US it is difficult since people are more eager to run away.

Re: LAPD helicopter tracker with real-time operating costs

#190

Post by cenamus »

jdibs wrote: post #186
cenamus wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

European cities are small? You don't hear about many chases in Berlin/Paris/London, do you?

[flagged]

Oh come on.

If you wanna say Muslims (all those "dirty foreigners"), then spit it the fuck out.

Also completely off topic that comment.

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