Hacker News Reader

Comment by __MatrixMan__ | Hacker News Reader

Can confirm. As a high schooler, I used to meet up with friends in the middle of the night at an elementary school playground. Mostly we would just swing on the swings and chat. Occasionally we'd share a 6-pack of beer, shame on us.

One night, somebody called the cops, who called school district security. When they drove up we left without saying hi because we get it, we're not wanted here.

Well they called the cops back, who chased us down (we ran, 'cause we were stupid). I was apprehended and from the back of the cop car I counted six other cop cars and a helicopter all looking for my friends for the crime of being near a school at night (the cops never mentioned the beer).

View on HN

Some cop noticed the beer, most likely - and they were one of the good guys.

Another one might have taken this opportunity to start an in-depth "investigation" (read "bullying spree") to figure out who sold the beer and who bought it and passed it on (if anyone in that bunch might plausibly have been underage.)

Seems likely. It's still weird to me that it was worth all of that taxpayer money to keep the helicopter in the sky while they searched for my friends (most of whom took to the storm sewer and were not caught).

They need to justify having it in the first place, that's why it'll get dispatched for less than needed situations. Use it or lose it.

Once when it happened to me and the whole gang responded, the "lead responder" was clear that he considered that this was a bullshit call and that WE totally had the right to do what we were doing and HE was sorting out a nuisance call to the police. He may also have been playing "good cop" - it's not like I was trusting him. While one of his buddies had parting words for me: "Do you realize what it looked like <insert saucer eyes>?" and "It could have been XXXXX, so of course police has to respond."

About a helicopter, the problem is compounded because that whole outfit needs some quota of flying hours to remain certified. It might be a boring area, and any opportunity to take it out and fly then counts as training, if nothing else can be written up for that flight. That there is a helicopter guarantees that it will be used. And same for SWAT and such.

Large cities usually have helicopters in the sky 24/7. It’s better (meaning get overhead faster) than trying to scramble when actually needed.

The helicopter will go and respond to random calls if it’s not needed for anything in particular.

Not defending the practice, just explaining why a helicopter might respond to something that’s overkill

Yeah that makes sense. We weren't large enough to justify it though. They cancelled the program a few years later (2010ish). I haven't seen a police helicopter over this town since.

I live in a town of less than 3000 people and regularly see/hear the local county shariff's military grade helicopter loitering around for no good reason.

You may be right, but as a former resident of several towns of a similar size hearing a helicopter almost always meant somebody was in critical care and going to a big hospital.

Ours was obvious, at least at night, because it was typically shining its spotlight on some spot on the ground.

Sometimes it would follow you around with the spotlight until a squad car came and pulled you over and accused you of a crime which a similar vehicle was involved with. In my case, the not-me truck was illegally harvesting rock from a park, but my truck bed was visibly empty from the sky so I don't know why they bothered summon the car.

The difference is that those helicopters don't just loiter around or hover over residential neighborhoods - they land at the nearest open field (in my case the town has a small airport) and immediately transport the patient 60 miles to a hospital. The helicopter I am talking about is definitely a military style helicopter and I'm 99% sure it's operated by the county sheriff's department. Gotta justify that budget somehow and there isn't much more fun way to do that than getting to play with big-boy-toys like helicopters.

Don’t helicopters cost insane hourly amounts to operate?

If I’m not mistaken, yes. I believe the flight cost is 300-5k+

Fixed wing planes like Cessna 172s are in the ballpark of 100/hr.

Yes but the thing about keeping the little people in their place is that there's always plenty of money to spend on it.

I'm not sure even Los Angeles keeps them up 24/7. Most cities either schedule them for evenings or do as-needed.

Our community has to stage mock events to give these folks some practice. We burn funds every once in a while on purpose to maintain readiness as we suppose. If you plan ahead, you can include hotdogs and soda in the budget.

I bought alcohol for some underage people who asked one time, not perceiving it as a risk because who could tell why I was buying it or watch me give it away? Not until today did I understand what could have happened.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com