“Learn to Fly with the Police”
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X6403700705 |
| Author | A. A. Muir |
| Date | 01 July 1964 |
| Published date | 01 July 1964 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
A. A.
MUIR
Chief Constable
of
Durham
"LEARN
TO
FLY
WITH
THE
POLI~E"
We have now finished an experiment in Durham on the use of
the helicopter for police purposes. An account of this experiment
has already been given in
THE
POLICE
JOURNAL
as an item of research.
The conclusions we have drawn from the experiment can be
summarized as follows:
Availability of Helicopter
From December, 1962 to March, 1963, the Brantly Helicopter
owned by Heliconair, Ltd., 33 Harris Street, Darlington, was not
available to us, because of other engagements or absence from the
county, for a total of 20 weeks.
In addition, of course, there were days when weather conditions,
i.e., gale force winds, or thick fog, prevented flying.
Cost of hiring was originally £16
lOs.
an hour, but was raised to
£17 lOs. We hired radio equipment at £4 a month.
Total authorized expenditure: £3,600
Total actual expenditure: £3,127 15s. 6d.
We were authorized to expend £1,000 a quarter on the hire of
the helicopter and radio equipment, which at £4,000 a year is
approximately 220 flying hours a year. This is about 4thours flying
a week, and is not sufficient to make full use of the helicopter.
If
the flying time had been increased to about 10 hours a week
or 500 a year, this would have cost us £9,000.
"Ten
hours"
does not seem to be very much, but Heliconair
granted us the facility of having the helicopter on "
stand-by"
at
police headquarters without cost to us, which meant that the heli-
copter was in the air only when necessary. The daily flyingtime varied
between one hour and five hours.
Cash in Transit Patrol
On Thursdays and Fridays there is a huge amount of money in
transit between banks and business premises. Some of this, e.g.,
N.C.B. Colliery pay rolls, is declared to us.
We instituted a crime prevention aerial patrol on Thursdays and
Fridays, but had to limit our flying to one hour on Thursday and
about three hours on Friday to keep within our budget.
July 1964 322
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