Congratulations, Bob!
 Bob Lasinski, helicopter mechanic for St. Louis County Police
Department, recently received the prestigious 2006 Technical
Specialist of the Year award, sponsored by the Airborne Law
Enforcement Association (ALEA). Bob is the only two-time
winner of the award in the history of the ALEA. This
award identifies and recognizes an individual whose efforts
or actions in maintaining or repairing aircraft operated
by a law enforcement agency were performed in extraordinary
manner, above and beyond what is normally expected, and have
brought distinction upon themselves, their department and/or
ALEA.
Since 1981, Bob has been the sole provider for maintenance
and integration of six helicopters and one fixed-wing aircraft.
In the past 10 years, the unit has never been without an
aircraft to provide patrol for its officers because of a
maintenance issue. Bob has dedicated his time and too
often put the job before family needs to ensure that the
department can continue the level of service that it provides.
Sergeant Derek Dunmire, who nominated Bob for the award,
says, “I’ve
visited other operations in our chosen vocation. Frequently,
the conversation turns to maintenance issues and some of the
trials of meeting the needs of a unit. When I describe
our maintenance program and explain that it’s provided
by one person, the response is always the same: ‘How
does one person keep up?’ My response is
always the same: Every unit needs a Bob.”
Air Beat Magazine, the Official Journal of the Airborne Law
Enforcement Association, July/August 2004
Reprint from the St. Louis Post Dispatch
03.24.04
City and County Police Hope to Merge Helicopter Services
Move could save money while increasing number of
air patrols.
 |
| St. Louis police pilot William Kiphart
(left) and St. Louis County police deputy chief pilot
Derek Dunmire fly a county police MD 500E helicopter this
month as the two departments discussed merging their helicopter
operations. |
Sometimes a police officer's closest backup is watching from
500 feet in the air. It's the same pair of eyes that finds
lost hunters and monitors possible terrorist targets.
These cops in the sky are helicopter pilots. And authorities
in the St. Louis area are working to get them airborne more
often by combining the city and county helicopter units in
the coming weeks.
"In these economic times, we have to find other ways
to fund the helicopter program or risk losing it," said
St. Louis County police Chief Ronald Battelle. "This
may be a first in a line of efforts to combine resources."
The St. Louis city Police Board will discuss the alliance
at its regular meeting today. The county Police Board reviewed
the plan last week.
Although St. Louis city and St. Louis County officials could
not provide exact numbers, they say they expect both police
departments to save money. And they expect to provide more
air patrols for the area.
"It's a tremendous asset to the region," Battelle
said.
Police say they use helicopters in countless scenarios: patrolling
neighborhoods, searching for missing people, photographing
crime scenes, surveying criminal activity, following stolen
cars.
If a suspect runs into a field, a helicopter crew can search
the area in minutes. It would take dozens of officers to form
a line and sweep the same area.
"We can eliminate everything but the buildings as a
possible hiding place," said Lt. Kurt Frisz, commander
of the St. Louis County police flight operations. "Then
officers on the ground can concentrate their efforts. It saves
an enormous amount of manpower."
But costs limit access to an aircraft for both police departments.
"A helicopter is an expensive piece of equipment to
keep up in the air," said St. Louis police Maj. Paul
Nocchiero. "It's a maintenance-intensive kind of operation."
Today both departments can call on a helicopter during an
emergency 24-hours a day. It takes from 30 minutes to an hour
to get one in the air.
The helicopters now patrol the sky about 11 percent of the
time in the city and 23 percent in the county.
By adjusting work schedules, officials expect the new combined
unit with four flight crews can patrol the region 64 percent
of the time.
The two departments will share their helicopters, pilots,
and money to keep a unit airborne every day.
Busy hours, such as the evening commute and weekend nights,
may be covered with two helicopters.
The St. Louis County helicopter program began in 1970. Its
pilots and observers are members of the county police tactical
team.
The county department has purchased two helicopters and received
two others for free from the U.S. Department of Defense. It
uses two of the helicopters for patrol, one for training and
the other for parts.
City police have been flying since 1998. They got their helicopter,
a Bell OH-58C (a Vietnam-era design called the Kiowa in military
service), from the federal government as surplus.
If the plan is approved, the city will move its aircraft
from the ARCH Air Medical Services hangar near downtown to
Spirit of St. Louis Airport in Chesterfield, where the county
police keep their four helicopters and airplane.
The departments will share the cost of a mechanic, saving
money on outside contracting. Currently, the city spends about
$50,000 a year on maintenance and the county spends $100,000.
Officials also expect to save money by purchasing fuel through
more than one vendor and by retiring one of the helicopters
in the future.
Each department will contribute four officers - both pilots
and observers - to the unit.
The observers control a spotlight, called a NightSun, and
the heat-sensing camera mounted under the aircraft. They also
monitor radio traffic for calls that need air assistance.
The helicopter crews will respond to crimes in progress.
They'll track suspects and provide light for officers on the
ground. They also help find missing people such as young children
or disoriented adults who wander from home.
Patrol officers can call on the helicopter to assist during
pursuits.
"The helicopter can follow the stolen car, and police
don't have to get involved in a high-speed chase," Nocchiero
said.
Helicopter patrols will check for suspicious activity at
potential terrorist targets such as bridges, railways and
utility plants.
A crew can patrol the entire county and city in about two
hours. In an emergency, they can fly from one end of the county
to the other in seven minutes, Frisz said.
The new partnership would give city police access to a county
helicopter rescue team called the Special Operations Aviation
Rescue team. It includes firefighters, paramedics, police
officers and helicopter pilots. The team can be called to
save a person trapped on the roof of a burning building or
struggling in swift water.
The new combined helicopter unit also will respond in emergencies
to surrounding counties in Missouri and Illinois, Battelle
said.
Reporter Heather Ratcliffe
E-mail: hratcliffe@post-dispatch.com
Phone: 618-659-3637
Eyes in the Sky: Jurisdictions Combine to Improve Helicopter
Patrols
Ryan Heinz
Of the Suburban Journals
updated: 09/07/2004 02:56 PM
 |
Pilot Jim Hilderbrand performs a pre-flight
check on a St. Louis County helicopter before flying his
shift.
(Rick Graefe photo/Suburban Journals) |
Helicopter pilot Jim Hilderbrand is none too happy with the
outcome of the evening's events. He openly expressed his feelings
as he settled in for a late-night cup of coffee in the ARCH
Air Medical Headquarters break room.
What's got the St. Louis County police helicopter pilot so
frustrated is that moments earlier, a suspect he was chasing
by air apparently had eluded police capture ... for now, anyway.
"We did what we could. You're too hard on yourself,
brother," his co-pilot, Korey Kline, reassured him.
Although Kline and Hilderbrand share the cockpit of a helicopter,
they have two very different jobs. While Hilderbrand does
all of the flying, Kline checks the radios for incoming police
calls, operates the massive spotlight (referred to by the
pilots as a "night sun") and uses the infrared technology
when needed. He also spends a lot of time looking out the
window of the helicopter for suspicious behavior. Essentially,
one flies and one's the eyes.
Perhaps what's even more unique in Kline and Hilderbrand's
differing roles is that while Hilderbrand is a St. Louis County
police officer, Kline is a St. Louis city police officer.
They are part of a new air support unit being shared by St.
Louis and St. Louis County, which eliminates the respective
agencies' boundaries in the sky and vastly improves the communication
between the ground units. It also saves the taxpayers money
while increasing the resources for all of the crime-fighting
agencies involved.
For example, prior to the city and county teaming up June
1 for one all-encompassing air support unit, each had one
helicopter for use. Now, they have a total of four helicopters
and one fixed-wing airplane at their disposal. As for St.
Charles County, which soon will join the program, that jurisdiction
had no air support unit at all.
"It's working out very well, better than expected,"
said Capt. Kurt Frisz of the St. Louis County Police Department.
"The underline for the entire program is it's going to
be more cost-effective for these three agencies to provide
air support because we're not duplicating efforts."
Hilderbrand and Kline couldn't agree more.
"We're ecstatic (with the program)," Kline said.
"Once you talk to the captain, he's got us all excited.
It just makes so much sense what we're doing."
"There's a lot of positive feedback from the road officers
from the city and the county." Hilderbrand added. "You
no longer have that line in the sand — at least from
the aviation standpoint."
Hilderbrand and Kline were on a Friday 4 p.m. to midnight
shift the day of the aforementioned chase. The duo had spent
a good portion of the shift's first half grounded by severe
thunderstorms. As the weather cleared, the pilots were ready
to go up immediately after their dinner break.
As night fell, the helicopter rose 700 feet to hide in the
darkness and become the police department's all-seeing eye
in the sky. Or as Hilderbrand simply put it when recounting
the pursuit of a stolen Dodge Intrepid about a month earlier
— in which the driver tried to avoid the helicopter
— "You can't lose the helicopter."
The night's action is anything but dull as the officers go
from one incident to another — a stolen automobile here,
a triple shooting there and even a small street brawl at one
point. Sure, there is some downtime like most jobs, but there
is rarely a lull in the air support unit. While scanning the
different radio frequencies for more incidents and maintaining
communication with various area airports to ensure shared
airspace, the pilots take it upon themselves to scan the ground
for any suspicious behavior.
At one point, Hilderbrand spotted a couple of men standing
in a dark, open junkyard lot. The helicopter was then turned
about and Kline hit them with the spotlight to see if they
would flee in guilt. Instead, the massive light pouring down
upon them only bewildered the innocent, unsuspecting men.
Just imagine if you were out casually chatting one night,
then were hit with a light the power of 30 million candles.
Of course, the greatest excitement for the night came from
the call across the radio about a shooting targeting police
officers. The helicopter then pointed in the direction of
the ensuing ground chase and tilted forward into action. As
it beelined across the city skyline and approached the chase,
the feeling was that of Spiderman swinging into action.
From a distance it could suddenly be made out that a pair
of taillights was speeding and weaving throughout the Martin
Luther King Drive traffic as that familiar red and blue flashing
was in pursuit directly behind. Within a matter of seconds,
the helicopter was bathing the suspect's car in light from
the "night sun." A foot chase followed after the
suspects drove their car into a yard and fled the automobile.
The driver — who was also the shooter — and a
passenger ducked under coverage briefly before Hilderbrand
and Kline spotted the passenger as he ran down an alley.
The passenger was followed from the air until ducking into
a corridor between apartments and seeking shelter from the
spotlight under a large cluster of trees. There he remained
as the helicopter created a perimeter by encircling the area
while police cars flocked to the scene. Suddenly, countless
little lights popped up in the square section of land below
as ground officers pulled flashlights from their belts to
aid in recovering the suspect.
Despite Kline's infrared search from 600 feet up that was
penetrating enough to find a cat hiding between two pipes
at a nearby facility, the passenger never turned up. Chances
are he ducked into one of the nearby abandoned buildings,
but after the having nabbed the shooter, the ground units
were not going to go on a random search for the passenger.
The passenger most likely would be caught within a couple
of days. After all, another potential chase would only have
put innocent bystanders in harm's way.
Meanwhile, the helicopter needed refueling, so Hilderbrand
and Kline reluctantly headed to the ARCH Air Medical Headquarters.
Though Hilderbrand wanted to fly over the area one last time,
it was time to end the shift.
As the helicopter flew to its home base at the Spirit of
St. Louis Airport in Chesterfield, the city and county now
felt quiet below as midnight approached. To the listener on
the radio, Hilderbrand offered a solemn "Good night,
Bill." An unknown voice on the other end nonchalantly
replied, "Good night, Jimbo."
St. Louis Metropolitan Police
First date of combined force:
June 1, 2004
Agencies involved:
St. Louis Metropolitan Police
St. Charles County Police
Number of vehicles:
Four helicopters
One fixed-wing airplane
Value of recovered stolen items by Metro air support
unit and the combined forces in 2004:
$1.5 million
|
