Kurt Ullman wrote:

Police helicopters only go up into the air AFTER (or WHILE) a
crime is in progress - to support ground operations.

(put a space or blank line between what you're quoting and your response
to make it more readable)

Nonsense. Helicopters to regular patrols, too in many cities.

This essay discusses the effectiveness of routine helicopter patrols:

http://www.ukessays.com/essays/socio...er-patrols.php

The emphasis of the various studies mentioned in the essay is to measure
the effectiveness of the routine helicopter patrol as a crime
*prevention* tool. Given the facts that helicopters are very expensive
to operate (even compared to fixed-wing aircraft) it's not clear how
many US police departments operate routine helicopter patrols today.

The essay mentions there are more than 500 police agencies operate over
2000 helicopters worldwide. I couldn't find anything mentioning the
numbers in the US, but a ballpark figure would probably be 1000 police
helicopters (50% of the global total).

I would guess that only the largest cities in the US operate routine
helicopter patrols, and probably only along major highways as they
perform traffic enforcement duties (looking for speeders, erratic or
agressive driving, etc).

Remotely-controlled drones will be used (mostly) to snoop around
and look for evidence of criminal activity.

Sorta like a cop in a car on patrol.

The idea of the cop on patrol is nice, but most likely cops go from one
call to another, with little time in between to simply patrol.

And I have to wonder how effective a drone helicopter would be at night
as a crime deterrant or even a crime-discovery / observation tool. The
safe operation of these drones at night (VFR) is also questionable.

Sounds like the drones would be cheaper...

Tell that to ...


Why? YOu aren't really trying to suggest that drones cost
more to buy, equip, maintain, and even staff than choppers are
you?

Are you daft enought to think that police departments would REPLACE
their existing helicopters with drones?

The 30,000 drones expected in the air by 2020 will be IN ADDITION to
what the police already have.

And what do you think 30,000 drones will cost, compared to 1,000 manned
police helicopters used (mostly) on a contingency-basis today?