* Note: The article below is written by Laurie Hawn on his trip with the Edmonton Police Service. 

It had been a long time since I had been night flying, except in the back of an Air Canada Airbus, so I jumped at the chance to join the Edmonton Police Service for a hop in Air-1. 

Sergeant Jim Pennie and Constable Randy Chaulk crewed the midnight trip with Chaulk doing most of the flying and Pennie doing most of the coordination with ground units.  After a short briefing, we were off in the Eurocopter EC-120, a very quiet helicopter with a top speed of 230 km/h and an endurance of over three hours.  It carries an infrared / optical camera, a powerful searchlight, police radios, avionics and room for four.  The only tough part for me was sitting in the back without any flight controls, but I was grateful for the opportunity to see this policing tool in action.

The first part of the trip was uneventful, allowing time to get familiar with the equipment and the simultaneous chatter on several radio frequencies.  We talked about the value of a helicopter and scenarios where the presence of Air-1 saves resources on the ground and results in much more effective response to emergency situations. 

Police helicopters are felt to be equivalent to between ten and fifteen two-person vehicle teams.  Air-1 can make it corner to corner in Edmonton in less than four minutes, with typical on-scene response time of less than ninety seconds.  A few relatively minor calls to break and enters, stolen vehicles and hit and runs gave me a pretty good feel for the ability of Air-1 to respond, and the main event was about to unfold.

At about 3:15, we got a call about a possible break and enter.  Air-1 was on-scene in about a minute and began searching with the infrared (IR) sensor.  In short order, we spotted a group of six people near a pickup truck.  Ground units, including dogs, were on the way while we kept track of the group.  They disappeared into an apartment house shortly before the ground units arrived, then ran from the building and scattered.  Sergeant Pennie was able to vector officers on the ground directly into the paths of the first four fugitives, who did the sensible thing when confronted with police dogs.  The other two disappeared around the side of a nearby apartment and hid between tree trunks and the side of the building.  They weren’t visible from the ground, but our infrared eye-in-the-sky wasn’t fooled.  With Air-1’s guidance, officers were able to carefully approach the two tree-huggers and coax them into custody without further incident.  I’m pretty sure those weren’t kisses they were blowing us when we lit them up with our searchlight.  The whole operation lasted about 15 minutes.

Although the fugitives turned out to be less than hardened criminals, the incident brought home very clearly why Air-1 is such an important addition to the Edmonton area policing capability.  With one aircraft, Air-1 operates only four days a week, due to maintenance requirements and crew capacity.  Anyone who is exposed first-hand to what Air-1 can do is convinced that Edmonton could really use Air-2.  I know I am and it’s time that project was set in motion.