May 2012 - Police Aviation News

Police Aviation News May 2012 8
from their NPAS bases outside South Yorkshire.
Nominally the agreed solution now offered by NPAS will not incur any additional costs compared
with the current South Yorkshire Police helicopter service. [ www.southyorks.gov.uk ]
Ed: The wording of the report suggests that much of the current infrastructure will go and
that the crews, whilst surviving as an entity, will be operating pretty much permanent evenings
and nights to cover peak air support demand.
UNITED STATES
FEDERAL: The US Coast Guard exercised a
$78M contract option last month to purchase the service’s
16 th and 17 th HC-144 Ocean Sentry [CASA
295] maritime patrol airplane from EADS North
America.
The Coast Guard has already taken delivery of 13
Ocean Sentries, with the 14 th due by July. The Coast
Guard exercised the first option on the contract for
the 15 th Ocean Sentry in August 2011 with delivery
expected in the summer of 2013.
A plume of smoke rises from a derelict Japanese
ship after it was hit by cannon fire by a U.S. Coast
Guard cutter on April 5, 2012, in the Gulf of Alaska.
The Coast Guard decided to sink the ship dislodged
by last year's tsunami because it was a threat to
maritime traffic and could have an environmental
impact if it grounded. (US Coast Guard, PO2 Charly Hengen)
ARKANSAS: Two former State Police Bell OH-58
helicopters arrived on a low loader at the Baxter
County Sheriff’s Office.
The pair of DoD Surplus helicopters formerly belonged
to the Arkansas State Police and had become
surplus to requirements after they had purchased
a Bell 407 [N524SP] for their own operation.
The existing Bell serving with Baxter County is down
to 20 hours before an engine overhaul is needed.
The newly arrived pair, N528SP c/n 41748 72-21082
and N529SP c/n 42083 72-21417 will allow a replacement
airframe to be put in place before the
other is grounded and will potentially provide the
Sheriffs Office with a vertical lift capability for a further
few years.
NORTH DAKOTA: In recent years the tiny town
of Lakota, ND has become a centre of some oblique
positive interest in the area of military helicopters but
it has now entered a further area of raised profile
further the development of UAVs for law enforcement.
It is being cited as a testing ground for the legality
of the use of unmanned drones by law enforcement
after one of its residents became the first
American citizen to be arrested with the help of a
Predator surveillance drone.
The case started when six cows wandered onto Rodney Brossart's 3,000 acre farm.
Brossart, an alleged anti-government "sovereignist," believed he should have been able to
keep the cows, so he and two family members chased police off his land with high powered
rifles.