69 detained with support of helicopter
ALMOST 70 people were detained following intervention from the police support helicopter in the past three months, new figures have revealed.
Across three counties, a total of 166 people were arrested during the 2007/08 period as a result of searches by the East Midlands Air Support Unit.
The police helicopter spent just over 909 hours flying over Northamptonshire, Warwickshire and Leicestershire during the last 12 months, at a cost of 1,000-an-hour.
Supt Mark Lacey, head of operations at Northamptonshire Police, said: “There were some reliability issues with the aircraft last year and as such the police helicopter did not spend as much time in the air as we would usually expect.
“However those issues have been resolved now. We have a brand new aircraft. The twin-engined Eurocopter has the latest technology on board and boasts improved day and thermal image cameras to help in the search for missing people and offenders.
“In fact, the figures for the first quarter of this year show that the arrest rate and the number of arrests the helicopter assisted with are both up on the same period in 2007.”
Between April and June this year, 69 people in Northamptonshire were arrested thanks to the work of the helicopter team, with the air support unit assisting in the arrests of 84 more. This compares with 63 arrests and 53 assists during the same period in 2007.
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