West Yorkshire Police helicopter's vital crime-fighting role (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Keep up the great work guys.

Just one vital fact missing from this story, which is just simple propoganda to justify the huge cost of the operation to the straining tax payer.So throughout West Yorkshire,they have caught 788 criminals & recovered 97 vehicles, the latter been of little benefit to tax payers.
Approx cost for 12 months is a staggering £66 million, so that costs us £8375 just to take each criminal into custody alone.This is before you add on the cost of ground support,without which the helicopter is useless.Don't tell me most of the 788 were hard line gun toting Ronnie Biggs types.The reality is the majority are metal thieves and teenage joy riders & commercial burglars.
£66 Million would pay for approx 400 more REAL beat officers (not gossip gathering CPSO's - cuddly as they are) on the streets of West Yorkshire.They would only have to catch 2 criminals a year, and recover 1 stolen car every 4 years, to justify their salary!! (at 'helicopter rates').
Air support is vital on occasion, tracking the 'R Moats' of this world, but in such instances a single 'whole of Yorkshire' helicopter could be utilised.How often do two events of that magnitude occur together...never.
Interestingly 30% of vehicles stolen throughout West Yorkshire were recovered in Bradford South/Airedale division.That would suggest to me, the BS/A division needs focus resources on traffic policing in that area..(Offenders know you can only stop one car at a time & phone their friends when you put up road blocks).
Finally cannabis location.It is very easy to find, most dope-heads's don't need to hire a helicopter for the day, when their usual man run's out.Night time infra red surveys cost a fortune,and are carried out to justify air time when there is no criminal activity.Forces could share one helicopter and schedule time for cannabis surveys, which can sweep large area's quickly at night...How many false alarm's do they generate?..I recall a story in T&A about a woman who came home to find the Police had busted her garage.Inside were a couple of totally legit pet hamsters!
The Forces cannabis obsession is part of a larger misguided European political agenda.The drug is endemic in British culture and causes relatively little damage to society, in comparison with Crack,Cocaine,Heroin
,Amphetamine,Crystal Meth etc.These drugs (and alcohol) are implicated in 90% of SERIOUS crime.
Our City streets are scary at weekends, where the use of these harder drugs is widespread amongst young people.
Bradford is rife with organised crime and the City is swimming in class A.The misery & poverty which accompanies it, is apparent to residents, and certainly is to the occasional visitor.
Huge empires are built on the misery of the residents of Bradford by these criminals.It seems as long as they legitimise the cash into a viable business,nobody asks any questions about where the money came from.
Finally,in these times of recession,Europe's approach to the whole cannabis issue simply beggars belief.Holland recently shooting itself in the foot.I cannot quantify the UNBELIEVABLY HUGE amount of revenue legislation would bring to struggling governments.Revenue which currently funds the empires of Criminals...Just think how many helicopters you could buy to go catch peddlar's of the proper drugs that cause all the REAL damage....Rant over.

ministry_of_justice wrote:
Just one vital fact missing from this story, which is just simple propoganda to justify the huge cost of the operation to the straining tax payer.So throughout West Yorkshire,they have caught 788 criminals & recovered 97 vehicles, the latter been of little benefit to tax payers.
Approx cost for 12 months is a staggering £66 million, so that costs us £8375 just to take each criminal into custody alone.This is before you add on the cost of ground support,without which the helicopter is useless.Don't tell me most of the 788 were hard line gun toting Ronnie Biggs types.The reality is the majority are metal thieves and teenage joy riders & commercial burglars.
£66 Million would pay for approx 400 more REAL beat officers (not gossip gathering CPSO's - cuddly as they are) on the streets of West Yorkshire.They would only have to catch 2 criminals a year, and recover 1 stolen car every 4 years, to justify their salary!! (at 'helicopter rates').
Air support is vital on occasion, tracking the 'R Moats' of this world, but in such instances a single 'whole of Yorkshire' helicopter could be utilised.How often do two events of that magnitude occur together...never.
Interestingly 30% of vehicles stolen throughout West Yorkshire were recovered in Bradford South/Airedale division.That would suggest to me, the BS/A division needs focus resources on traffic policing in that area..(Offenders know you can only stop one car at a time & phone their friends when you put up road blocks).
Finally cannabis location.It is very easy to find, most dope-heads's don't need to hire a helicopter for the day, when their usual man run's out.Night time infra red surveys cost a fortune,and are carried out to justify air time when there is no criminal activity.Forces could share one helicopter and schedule time for cannabis surveys, which can sweep large area's quickly at night...How many false alarm's do they generate?..I recall a story in T&A about a woman who came home to find the Police had busted her garage.Inside were a couple of totally legit pet hamsters!
The Forces cannabis obsession is part of a larger misguided European political agenda.The drug is endemic in British culture and causes relatively little damage to society, in comparison with Crack,Cocaine,Heroin

,Amphetamine,Crystal Meth etc.These drugs (and alcohol) are implicated in 90% of SERIOUS crime.
Our City streets are scary at weekends, where the use of these harder drugs is widespread amongst young people.
Bradford is rife with organised crime and the City is swimming in class A.The misery & poverty which accompanies it, is apparent to residents, and certainly is to the occasional visitor.
Huge empires are built on the misery of the residents of Bradford by these criminals.It seems as long as they legitimise the cash into a viable business,nobody asks any questions about where the money came from.
Finally,in these times of recession,Europe's approach to the whole cannabis issue simply beggars belief.Holland recently shooting itself in the foot.I cannot quantify the UNBELIEVABLY HUGE amount of revenue legislation would bring to struggling governments.Revenue which currently funds the empires of Criminals...Just think how many helicopters you could buy to go catch peddlar's of the proper drugs that cause all the REAL damage....Rant over.

i like this, an alternative view of the news without professional spin. when spelled out in those terms its not such a valuable asset. thanks for taking the time to write it.

I don't care how much it costs, it's a success, more successful than troops on the ground, I only wish they would arm it with air to surface missiles and take out more scum for good and do us all a bigger favour!

I'm glad to hear they actually use the helicopter to catch real criminals, and for other practical uses, rather than just to persecute harmless cannabis users/growers, for a change.

In any case, the infra-red camera will soon be useless for spotting so-called 'skunk farms' (I grow tomatoes in my window-sill, does that make me a 'smallholder'?), as LED lights are now being developed for growing, and they produce no heat signature nor any noticeable significant spike in electricity usage.

Now with the Right-wing government in Holland banning cannabis sales to foreigners, and with the effects of Osborne's double-dip recession, combined with ever-growing demand, we should now start to see home cannabis production really take off!

a reasonable sort of chap wrote:
In any case, the infra-red camera will soon be useless for spotting so-called 'skunk farms' (I grow tomatoes in my window-sill, does that make me a 'smallholder'?), as LED lights are now being developed for growing, and they produce no heat signature nor any noticeable significant spike in electricity usage.

Now with the Right-wing government in Holland banning cannabis sales to foreigners, and with the effects of Osborne's double-dip recession, combined with ever-growing demand, we should now start to see home cannabis production really take off!

Hmm, In Queensbury it seems.

ministry_of_justice wrote:
Just one vital fact missing from this story, which is just simple propoganda to justify the huge cost of the operation to the straining tax payer.So throughout West Yorkshire,they have caught 788 criminals & recovered 97 vehicles, the latter been of little benefit to tax payers.
Approx cost for 12 months is a staggering £66 million, so that costs us £8375 just to take each criminal into custody alone.This is before you add on the cost of ground support,without which the helicopter is useless.Don't tell me most of the 788 were hard line gun toting Ronnie Biggs types.The reality is the majority are metal thieves and teenage joy riders & commercial burglars.
£66 Million would pay for approx 400 more REAL beat officers (not gossip gathering CPSO's - cuddly as they are) on the streets of West Yorkshire.They would only have to catch 2 criminals a year, and recover 1 stolen car every 4 years, to justify their salary!! (at 'helicopter rates').
Air support is vital on occasion, tracking the 'R Moats' of this world, but in such instances a single 'whole of Yorkshire' helicopter could be utilised.How often do two events of that magnitude occur together...never.
Interestingly 30% of vehicles stolen throughout West Yorkshire were recovered in Bradford South/Airedale division.That would suggest to me, the BS/A division needs focus resources on traffic policing in that area..(Offenders know you can only stop one car at a time & phone their friends when you put up road blocks).
Finally cannabis location.It is very easy to find, most dope-heads's don't need to hire a helicopter for the day, when their usual man run's out.Night time infra red surveys cost a fortune,and are carried out to justify air time when there is no criminal activity.Forces could share one helicopter and schedule time for cannabis surveys, which can sweep large area's quickly at night...How many false alarm's do they generate?..I recall a story in T&A about a woman who came home to find the Police had busted her garage.Inside were a couple of totally legit pet hamsters!
The Forces cannabis obsession is part of a larger misguided European political agenda.The drug is endemic in British culture and causes relatively little damage to society, in comparison with Crack,Cocaine,Heroin

,Amphetamine,Crystal Meth etc.These drugs (and alcohol) are implicated in 90% of SERIOUS crime.
Our City streets are scary at weekends, where the use of these harder drugs is widespread amongst young people.
Bradford is rife with organised crime and the City is swimming in class A.The misery & poverty which accompanies it, is apparent to residents, and certainly is to the occasional visitor.
Huge empires are built on the misery of the residents of Bradford by these criminals.It seems as long as they legitimise the cash into a viable business,nobody asks any questions about where the money came from.
Finally,in these times of recession,Europe's approach to the whole cannabis issue simply beggars belief.Holland recently shooting itself in the foot.I cannot quantify the UNBELIEVABLY HUGE amount of revenue legislation would bring to struggling governments.Revenue which currently funds the empires of Criminals...Just think how many helicopters you could buy to go catch peddlar's of the proper drugs that cause all the REAL damage....Rant over.

Best comment in T&A this year!

Not long now before we get drone helicopters flying around 24/7 controlled by some kid with a playstation controller. Has anyone noticed how the more we spend on policing and prison services the higher the crime rates seem to be. Anyone fancy connecting the dots and telling us how that works?

Minstry Of Justice..... Interesting comments, where do you get the annual cost of £66 million?? Seems a tad high?

Robster40 wrote:
Minstry Of Justice..... Interesting comments, where do you get the annual cost of £66 million?? Seems a tad high?

Agree, he seems to have mis calculated that bit - unless the police are operating an AH-64 Apache helicopter gunship.

Good comments though...

webess wrote:

Robster40 wrote:
Minstry Of Justice..... Interesting comments, where do you get the annual cost of £66 million?? Seems a tad high?

Agree, he seems to have mis calculated that bit - unless the police are operating an AH-64 Apache helicopter gunship.

Good comments though...

Yes a tad high,, the police helicopters are soon to become part of the newly formed National Police Air Service, (NPAS)... Covering all of England & Wales... predicted budget of £70 million for all.

Robster40 wrote:

webess wrote:

Robster40 wrote:
Minstry Of Justice..... Interesting comments, where do you get the annual cost of £66 million?? Seems a tad high?

Agree, he seems to have mis calculated that bit - unless the police are operating an AH-64 Apache helicopter gunship.

Good comments though...

Yes a tad high,, the police helicopters are soon to become part of the newly formed National Police Air Service, (NPAS)... Covering all of England & Wales... predicted budget of £70 million for all.

Apologies if I mislead, 66 million was last years total budget, which I had misread as South Yorkshire's and extrapolated for approximation.I do however stand by all the points I was trying to make.

webess wrote:

Robster40 wrote:
Minstry Of Justice..... Interesting comments, where do you get the annual cost of £66 million?? Seems a tad high?

Agree, he seems to have mis calculated that bit - unless the police are operating an AH-64 Apache helicopter gunship.

Good comments though...

Not an AH64 - Council accountants.

.....and regarding possible sources of government revenue...http://www
.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-1
7888762

End the pointless and ineffective 'war on drugs'. Stop wasting ££millions and ruining people's lives.

LEGALIZE CANNABIS ! ! !

Albion. wrote:

a reasonable sort of chap wrote:
In any case, the infra-red camera will soon be useless for spotting so-called 'skunk farms' (I grow tomatoes in my window-sill, does that make me a 'smallholder'?), as LED lights are now being developed for growing, and they produce no heat signature nor any noticeable significant spike in electricity usage.

Now with the Right-wing government in Holland banning cannabis sales to foreigners, and with the effects of Osborne's double-dip recession, combined with ever-growing demand, we should now start to see home cannabis production really take off!

Hmm, In Queensbury it seems.

Cannabis is grown in every district in every town and city across the land. The Police are deluding themselves if they think they are making a shred of difference.

Why don't they use the helicopter to chase the many UFOs that are sighted with alarming frequency in the skies above Bradford?

http://www.uk-ufo.co
.uk/idle-bradford-14
th-april-2012/

"Bryan Dent, West Yorkshire Police Force Drugs Co-ordinator, said: “This report reflects our pro-active attitude towards all types of drugs including cannabis cultivation.
It should indicate to the public that we have developed expertise and tactics to act upon the intelligence provided ...and that having received that intelligence, we are content to go into these premises, close them down and take positive action against persons found in the premises cultivating and to investigate the organisers of the farms.” Blah, blah, blah.

PERHAPS, MR. DENT, IT SHOULD INDICATE TO THE POLICE THAT A GREAT PUBLIC DEMAND FOR CANNABIS EXISTS!

LEGALIZE IT ! ! !

http://www.thetelegr
aphandargus.co.uk/ne
ws/9679413.West_York
shire_is_hotspot_for
_cannabis_farms/?ref
=la