In
1991, it was reported that the Fairfax County Police Air force of four
helicopters was costing county taxpayers $4,000 a day and required 17 full time
employees (Other reports put it at 18 employees) to keep it flying. At that point, the Fairfax County Police had
one fewer helicopter than the entire Virginia State Police yet it averaged only
a one-day use as a backup ambulance service and assisted in a few arrests each
month.
In
the midst of their military escalation, the cops complained that they were
understaffed “in critical areas” but refused to reassign even one of the 18
helicopter crewmembers to those areas.
The
District of Columbia is the only other police department in the region that has
a helicopter but its use is strenuously restricted to the business of
policing. However, the always publicity
conscious Fairfax County Police Department was quick to line up free
photographs and demo rides for school children with their fleet.
The
Air Force was always used to give a retired cop a joy ride and fly high-level
cops out to county paid conferences in nearby West Virginia The police go their first $3,000,000 for two
helicopters in 1982, (plus an additional $378,000 for pilot training) the same
year that the County limited teacher’s salaries to a 3% increase.
On
August 24, 1993, the cops crashed one of their chopters in an almost comical
mishap; the police pilot and the co-pilot and the ground crew forgot to unplug
the million and half dollar copter from a battery unit on the ground. In November of 1993, after no opposition from
county supervisors, (I know, that’s a given, but I felt I should point it out
anyway), the cop spent $1.5 million to replace the crashed helicopter.