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LAPD Police Claim Helicopters Stop Crimes Before They Happen
HughPickens.com writes True Angelenos don't even bother to look up when one of the LAPD's 17 helicopters rattles their windows searching for a car-jacked Camry or an assault suspect hiding under a jacaranda but few doubt that more bad guys would get away without the nation's largest police helicopter fleet to help chase them. Now the LA Times reports that data shows that LA's helicopters are stopping crimes before they happen. Tapping into the data-driven policing trend, the department uses heat maps, technology and years of statistics to identify crime "hot spots." Pilots then use their downtime to fly over them, on the theory that would-be criminals tend to rethink their nefarious plans when there's "ghetto birds," as Ice Cube calls them, hovering overhead [explanatory video with annoying sound]. Months of data show that the number of serious crimes reported in the LAPD's Newton Division in South L.A. fell during weeks when the helicopters conducted more flights. During the week of Sept. 13, when the helicopter unit flew over Newton 65 times, the division recorded 90 crimes. A week later, the number of flights dropped to 40 and the number of reported crimes skyrocketed to 136, with rises seen among almost all types of crime, including burglary, car theft and thefts from vehicles. "It's extremely cutting edge," says Capt. Gary Walters, who heads the LAPD's air support unit. "It's different. It's nothing that we've ever done before with this specificity."
But Professor Geoffrey Alpert. a policing expert who has studied the use of police helicopters in Miami and Baltimore, says the choppers can deter crime in the short-term but criminals will likely return when they're not around (PDF). "You are deterring the criminals but you aren't getting rid of them and their intent. Those criminals could strike in a different time and place," says Alpert. "I mean that's the whole thing about random patrol. You see a police car and it's the same thing. You hide, he goes around the block and you go back to your breaking and entering."
But Professor Geoffrey Alpert. a policing expert who has studied the use of police helicopters in Miami and Baltimore, says the choppers can deter crime in the short-term but criminals will likely return when they're not around (PDF). "You are deterring the criminals but you aren't getting rid of them and their intent. Those criminals could strike in a different time and place," says Alpert. "I mean that's the whole thing about random patrol. You see a police car and it's the same thing. You hide, he goes around the block and you go back to your breaking and entering."
Those LARD shirts. And this was back in the mid-'90s. They knew it then. Those pigs are out to get you with the power trip. You disagree and go on a rampage and kill people with guns? Your LARD overlords will burn your house down with tear gas canisters.
How about helicopter theft?
Is the LAPD so bad that they need a police force that exists just to keep them in line?
This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
I'd use a drone instead of a chinook and run a community program with the money saved on helicopter fuel .
Too bad "Host Chopper" is no longer around as it was a hilarious parody about a hosting company with a fucking chopper, I guess someone should create a LAPD Chopper parody since all they're doing is delaying the crime, not actually stopping it. As soon as the chopper is gone the criminals go on a rampage.: Here's a link to some of the content host chopper used to have: http://laughingsquid.com/host-...
That story sounds quite better than Minority Report, as the would-be criminals won't even get to commit crimes or be arrested, so even them benefit from the aerial surveillance.
Linux is for people who don't mind RTFM.
So criminals will wait until the police pass by before committing a crime. Pretty obvious. .
Translated LAPD Police tries to justify their bloated helicopter budget.....
Unfortunately, the LAPD's helicopters can't detect their pilots being an oppressive gang of statist stormtrooper thugs worthy of total revilement, so it evens out.
magic helicopter and unicorns
Combine liberalized concealed carry with the police subsidizing the purchase of guns and ammo by law-abiding, poor concealed carry holders. Let them also use police shooting ranges for free as long as they're in good standing. Then, on the street, take a reflexively pro-CCW holder stance until the facts say otherwise.
It may well be true.
It may well also be true drones will stop crime.
And indeed we can imagine along these lines some other as-yet-uninvented technology for monitoring people which eliminates all or almost all crime - perhaps an individual drone per person, or a satellite in geosync orbit, watching the whole city all the time.
The issue however is this : any given act we may perform can be said to have certain benefits, and certain costs. We do not underact an act simply because it HAS benefits - we undertake it if the benefits outweigh the costs.
As the police monitor us all more and more closely, we sacrifice more and more freedom, liberty and privacy and risk more and more abuse of power.
It is however mainly as far as I can see the police who are making this decision, and they benefit most closely by it, for it enables them to much more effectively carry out ther job; and their job is so much easier the more closely we are all watched and monitored.
The police by their great benefit from such technologies are not impartial guardians of freedom, liberty and privacy.
The police could prevent it all if they were given enough helicopters to have one hover over every block 24/7.
That would make those neighborhoods so much more livable, NOT.
Drones don't make the BIG noise that drives off the bad guys, and makes sure you know you are "Protected".
Do they have facial recognition? Do they keep recordings of all the people and cars that come and go in the neighborhoods?
Can wives get copies of those recordings for divorce proceedings?
Can deputies get copies of those recordings to see where the ex-wife is going?
While the criminals are picking up the dollar bills, they are not committing any crimes.
Other than the stealing of dollar bills.
Once we accept the premise that continuous, warrantless, aerial surveillance reduces crime, they'll tout the benefits of drones: no pilot, less fuel...missiles.
I know when I lived in a city with a constantly-circling police helicopter it was damned annoying at night. It wasn't terribly loud, but it was a varying, distant and then closer droning sound, like a lower-frequency version of a mosquito in the room. Maybe it discourages crime, but at the cost of the huge footprint it leaves on the city for criminals and non-criminals alike. It's also very expensive. I don't know the exact numbers, but for typical decent-sized helicopters used by a police force it's going to be well over $1000/hour to run them independent of the personnel. If they're doubling or tripling the number of flights and seeing half the number of crimes, you have to wonder if you could achieve the same thing by just having more (cheaper) cars on the street.
I also wonder if they're truly seeing a reduction in crime, or if it's just moving to areas where the helicopters don't happen to be circling.
Wouldn't the amount of downtime you have be reduced when there are more crimes happening? These variables are already linked because the amount of police helicopter hovering time is based on the amount of crimes happening. I'm not sure we should trust these stats.
"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." - Mark Twain
"I mean that's the whole thing about random patrol. You see a police car and it's the same thing. You hide, he goes around the block and you go back to your breaking and entering."
No fucking shit. Thank you Captain Obvious.
Perhaps I'm reading the tone wrong, but it seems like he's complaining. "Ugh, police oppressors! How dare they patrol neighborhoods and reduce violent crimes!"
Isn't this kind of exactly what we want cops to do? Wander around, see if anybody's being beaten or mugged, or just be a visible presence to let the bad guys know somebody's watching? You'd prefer they left?
We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
Location Profiling should be made illegal. If we cannot profile races for likelihood of criminal intent, we should not profile locations either...
If everyone is dead, then no crimes can be committed!
I think it would be a good idea to have helicopters flying above the whole city the whole, constantly covering every square inch and monitoring the behavior of the citizens. They should be painted black, and in order to keep noise levels at a minimum, it might be a good idea to make them special stealth helicopters who are hard to hear.
But we shouldn't stop there. LAPD should use portable brain scanners to question citizens randomly in some sort of improvised lie detector and loyalty tests. Another useful idea would be to implant RFID chips under the skin that allow LAPD to track the movements of all citizens in realtime. That could e.g. be done during vaccination campaigns. It would be very useful for tracking supects via helicopter.
Oh, and death squads would be cool.
Just some ideas in order to fight the spread of burglary and petty theft.
Week one birds are flying report 90 crimes.
Week two people are aware of birds and only commit the necessary 40 crimes.
Week three pressure is off and time to catch up on the backlog, 136 crimes.
I'm no math expert but doesn't that average out to 90 crimes a week.
Now you keep the birds in the air and the people committing the crimes WILL find
another "outlet"
How come so-called "ghetto bird" flights haven't been declared "racist", and forced to end?
I think it was called Blue Thunder, starred Roy Scheider sometime in the 80's
If helicopters become commonplace over the skies of LA, will they still have the same preventative effects as they have now when their presence is more of a novelty?
Annoying sound? News flash - lots of people love rap.
Another factor is opportunity. These helicopters are likely to reduce moments of opportunity and increase fear of being detected as they could show up at any moment.
Thank you, Bradley Manning, Edward Snowden and so many others, for courageously defending humanity, my freedom and more!
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In the far distance a helicopter skimmed down between the roofs, hovered for an instant like a bluebottle, and darted away again with a curving flight. It was the police patrol, snooping into people's windows.
-- 1984, George Orwell
XML is a known as a key material required to create SMD: Software of Mass Destruction
Nasa's report says "Suggets". The evidence is good as we have suspected for many years, but can these popsci article writers can't even be bothered to check the sources and just make up stuff.
I am sure when IFLS picks this up, they will report that not only is there an ocean but life is confirmed too.
I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
I think I'll form a corporation to tender a proposal to the authorities to provide my world-famous crime-prevention rocks.
It's pretty obvious how effective they are. Neither I nor anyone else who has one of these has ever been victimized by crime. Hell, as far as I know, we've never even seen a criminal. Clearly, ne'er-do-wells and nefarious malcontents are strongly repelled by the magnetic forces projected by these stones. (I think it's magnetic, anyway. Who knows how that works? You just can't explain that.)
Anyway, I figure a modest delivery and support contract is an extremely cost-effective alternative to the clearly supersticious voodoo of these magic "helicopter" crime preventers. (Who the hell believes in that kind of woo, anyway? "Flying machines?" Feh.)
Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
I think, if propelled with enough velocity, these crime-prevention rocks would work very well.
Have gnu, will travel.
Also in other news: You never get mugged or robbed while in a choke-hold of a patrol officer.
"Big data" shows how stupid it is yet again... correlation != causation.
As illustrated here: https://imgur.com/gallery/yGL0y
All this talk of choppers lately inspired me to rent Blue Thunder from Netflix.
Here is how I would deal with the LAPD Helicopter problem.
Plan out your $evil-plan.
Find a bunch of kids or whatever and give them:
1) A $100 dollar bill
2) A laser pointer
3) A promise for another $100 dollar bill after the job is done
( Even more effective if multiple groups of kids all have the same job at the same time )
When the heli flys nearby, the kids fire up the laser pointer and annoy the hell out of the Heli pilot. Since we know that shining a laser at an aircraft is the most heinous crime on the planet, guess where the Heli will go ? This frees up the area for your $evil-plan to take place.
Random gunfire also works. Harassing the heli with an RC plane or drone works too. Hmmm. . . . a bigger drone could trail a cable behind it. Heli blades are not real fond of those. . . . .
Quieter, cheaper, safer, fly longer, just better.
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
Yes; you don't try to cut the fence of the police state prison camp right where the guards are standing - and that is EXACTLY what LAPD is doing to poor (read: minority) neighborhoods.
Tired of the endless WHUMP-WHUMP-WHUMP? well, turn white and rich, Mr. and Mrs. Bootstrap!
So far, the main thing we've found these helicopters can deter is a good night's sleep. Our house is just south of the Staples Center, and on any given evening we hear 1 to 4 hours of helicopter noise going well into the night, often with flood lights scanning for suspects. They are so prevalent that we've made a lullaby about it for our 3-year-old son:
Fly away helicopter!
Fly away, fly away!
Your engine's too noisy
And it's time to go to sleep!
© 2015, so don't even TRY to add any syncopated cowbell to this, Pharell!
The 'peaceful enjoyment of liberty' of hundreds of innocent citizens is being infringed to prevent a few car break-ins.
These copters are LOUD. And in these 'pre-crime' patrols, they make liberal use of their spotlight, essentially treating ordinary citizens as criminal suspects. They even invade Santa Monica (independently incorporated city), circling endlessly for 3 hours at a stretch in the middle the night, depriving entire neighborhoods'-worth of a restful night of sleep.
Oh, the best part, was on a radio interview show: The LAPD guy justified the practice on economic grounds! Wah, we just don''t have enough officers to patrol... Really? How much does a helicopter cost to operate? Maybe $300-500 per hour? Plus the two pigs along for the ride are getting salary. Could that money not be spent on neighborhood patrols on foot, or at least in squad cars?
It's ridiculous.
If you constantly invade every citizen's privacy and watch what everyone is doing, crime or no crime, then gee, there will be fewer crimes.
Maybe if instead of using jails to house criminals we use jails to house EVERYONE, there would be even less crime.
The police state is good for you!
Police helicopters don't "Stop Crimes Before They Happen", they merely show that
And a cop walking the beat does the same and costs a ton less. Stop using cops as ticket collectors use cops to prevent real crime and serve the community.
Jack of all trades,master of none
If those helicopters were seriously impacting criminal activity, I would think they would have been shot down by now. There are 17 helicopters, each very expensive and hard to acquire in both the time and financial senses. Hardware sufficient to drop helicopters with extreme prejudice, particularly low flying ones, is almost free by comparison. Also easy. I could build such a device in my garage. One way is basic model rocketry and the most trivial short-ranged IR or human-assisted video guidance. Even a cheap drone could bring a helicopter down with the proper payload, which wouldn't even have to be explosive. Chemical and mechanical means are practical. Or go really simple: a 50 caliber machine gun, ground-to-air. So it seems quite unlikely these copters are having any significant effect on serious crime.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
From the article is sounds like they are just looking at the number of flights and comparing it to the number of incidents in an area. There are lots of other items that they should be looking at in order to determine if the helicopters are actually doing something. Weather plays an important factor. Even what week it is can be important because maybe the weeks that had spikes in robberies and assaults were weeks in which people received paychecks or social assistance. Did they factor in actions by other groups in the police department when they were doing their fly overs? Sounds like they just got a few numbers that they can justify their program with and are boasting about it.
I've lived in LA for over 30 years. I wasn't committing crimes 30 years ago and I'm not committing them now. And that pretty much goes for my neighbors too.
The only thing that's changed is that I now get to wear earplugs to bed because there are several flyovers every night.
I'll probably die earlier due to lead in helicopter exhaust (airplane fuel isn't regulated like automotive gas), or due to stress that comes from living in a noisy environment.
Helicopters do not reduce crime.
CAPTCHA = deterred
"During the week of Sept. 13, when the helicopter unit flew over Newton 65 times, the division recorded 90 crimes. A week later, the number of flights dropped to 40 and the number of reported crimes skyrocketed to 136, with rises seen among almost all types of crime, including burglary, car theft and thefts from vehicles. "It's extremely cutting edge," says Capt. Gary Walters, who heads the LAPD's air support unit. "It's different. It's nothing that we've ever done before with this specificity.""
Try this for a year, and watch the crime rate even out as people become acclimated to the schedule
In war zones, enemies of the US have come to fear the tell tale sounds of UAVs overhead. None is perhaps more signatory than the Shadow UAV, it sounds like a damn lawn mower. Some PsyOps folks noticed the correlation of less IEDs in places that are not overflown as often. So, they went ahead and wired up some speakers that pump out the same sound of a UAV flying overhead, apparently it was somewhat effective.
Does the weather for that week play a role in the crime rate? That week highs got to 103ÂF on the 16th. The energy use set a record. Perhaps more people just stayed inside with the AC on. The following week with the spike in crime had more normal temps in the 80's.
The report appears innocuous but is also justification for more air power.
Hidden from us is the effect of flattening hot crime spots and dispersing crime more evenly across the area. Short term reduction of crime in hot spots seems very real but would identify the hot spot and move crime to cooler spots.
It does little to solve the social and economic wreckage in many neighborhoods that makes crime the most profitable activity.
With deep database background searches no past criminal can get an "interesting" or well paying job. With 20-40% of the mail population in some areas there are rare honest jobs.
The multi million budget for one helicopter would better be spent on solving social problems. This is harder to do than I like but it needs to be done.
We are making some improvements with the decriminalization of marijuana but have failed to discuss a need to expunge non violent non repeat crimes from public employment screening. Simply financing tattoo removal would help some individuals.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L...
Nothing against the unit but the budget area and population make me wonder if more is justified.
Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't. Mark Twain.
If you don't see any pink elephants in LA, it's because the helicopters keep them away.