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South Yorkshire Police helicopter MEGATHREAD (excl. sightings)

Do you agree that the Police helicopter should be scrapped?  

77 members have voted

  1. 1. Do you agree that the Police helicopter should be scrapped?

    • Yes I agree
      10
    • No I don't
      60
    • I don't care
      3
    • I''m a criminal, so I do agree
      4


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That's shocking! 28,000 notes for one chav? Shocking = FACT.

 

That is bad, they're two for one at poundland

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What exactly is your point..?

Tell me what figures you would like and i'll virtually guarantee I can work the stats to prove it...

Lie damn lies and statistics...

 

http://www.southyorkshire.police.uk/foi/disclosurelog/20080451

 

from this page of freedom of information requests

Annual budget = £1,279,471

number of arrests that year 241

number of assist arrests 151

 

241+151=392 arrests

 

1,279,471 divided by 392 = £3263 per arrest..

 

those figures are based on arrests not convictions and dont take into account the original cost of the helicopter itself or crew wages as they are paid from normal police funding. The annual budget covers little more than fuel and maintainance of the aircraft. Numbers of arrest quoted are directly attributable to the helicopter where assists are only where the helicopter may be present and not really required. Its a bit like saying a policeman stood on the corner of city road assisted with traffic flow problems on brammall lane because he directed traffic away from the city centre.

 

 

the point being that for the majority of cases involving the helicopter such as chasing speeding motorists the cost of the chopper coppers far out weigh the recovered fines gains, even at £3263 quoted above for a £60 speeding conviction ( see Tv's Police reality shows) it seems a rather big wastage.

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Most businesses have to consider things like a cost/benefit analysis, return on investment etc. I don't see why public services should not have to do the same.

 

Based on the link boxlightner provided, the number of arrests SY99 is involved in is a little over one per day. To me that is not a great use of nearly £1.3m per year. Imagine how many beat officers that would buy. What would they do with a speed camera if it was only catching one person per day?

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What would they do with a speed camera if it was only catching one person per day?

 

...falsify :D

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How come it was reported previously that the local helicopter was to be merged into a joint venture if the decision has only just been taken as to its future ?

Seems to me there has been some inaccurate, sensational and scare mongering reporting going on.

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Expensive

 

I know old lady that got raided by police because they thought she was growing softdrugs in attick, it was a little warm there. She just kept it warm, had some reptiles and other pets to care for.

 

So what if someone grows a little weet. I dont use it and dont want it but dont care if someone else does. Alcohol causes more problems.

 

Helicopter=waste of money. It keeps circling around making lots of noise and has a very poor investment vs rendament ratio.

 

Give 50% of helicopter expense to criminals as a gift for reporting themselfes to police after crime and the criminals make profit and council safes money.

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It's a tough one. The savings were about £600k a year BUT reaction times for the chopper to reach incidents would have significantly increased as well as the reduction in other operations it currently does i e helping to locate illegal cannabis farms. I think in the long run I'd prefer things to stay as they are. SY99 does a very good job and has a very good success rate in apprehending criminals.

 

My Bold=

 

A £3000 handheld thermal imager can be used to detect cannabis farms and some forces are already using them.

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How come it was reported previously that the local helicopter was to be merged into a joint venture if the decision has only just been taken as to its future ?

Seems to me there has been some inaccurate, sensational and scare mongering reporting going on.

 

The government i believe announced the setting up of the national air service that meant a group of helicopters would be run by this service and based at locations around the country so that they could respond to incidents all over and get rid of regional boundaries. However when the details were announced South Yorkshire wasn't going to be a base for any of these helicopters therefore would have to rely on a helicopter coming from derbyshire or west yorkshire or somewhere, resulting in longer response times when it was actually available.

 

The government were expecting all police forces to agree to be a part of this new service, however the south yorkshire police authority have made the decision that this new service does not provide the type of cover that they would like and therefore have now made the decision to opt out, the first force in the country to do so.

 

So it was previously reported the SYP were going to be a part as it was expected that all police forces would join, however as more details are being released it as now been decided not to be involved. No firm decisions had previously been made, just an assumption of what it was believed would happen.

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Ah yes. Your right.

We should run the police like a business.

Anything that costs too much to investigate or deal with can be chopped.

We can set a figure and anything that is above that line won't be dealt with.

If there's a crime like growing drugs going on and it's just small, they can be let go cos it's too expensive. Any big cannabis factories we can sell off the stash on the street to help pay, cos it will just get wasted otherwise, and that's not good business.

Oh yes. And the speeding fines. Instead of ALL the money going to the government, like they do now. We'll let the police keep the money and give productivity bonuses for those cops that catch loads and make the most money. !

Yep. Let's run the police like a business. Defo the way forward.

 

Mind you. I wouldn't want the job of telling people that they're crime won't be investigated because it's the wrong side of the budget line. !

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