So you want to be a LAPD Helicopter Pilot Officer?

Chasing down the I-10 in Los Angeles going over 100 miles per hour, the vibrations sending pulses throughout her body, she grabs her radio. The city of Los Angeles is home to some of the most popular and well-known people and places in the world. But who protects the people who visit and live here?

Renee Muro is a Tactical Flight Officer for LAPD’s Air Support Unit. The fleet is a 24-hour, 7 days a week operation.

“People think we just fly around,” she said, warning that the job isn’t as simple as many people in LA think.

The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) protects almost 4 million people every day. The police department provides service to a total of 468 square miles and 21 community areas. Along with their ground patrol, their K-9 units, and S.W.A.T. The LAPD offers a unique form of policing– the Air Support Division.

For a country that is not at war, the militarisation of helicopter patrols is something many people have gotten used to, or don’t even notice.

The department covers over 40 geographical divisions.

The department isn't faced without opposition. The price of training and maintenance leaves the fleet asking for millions of dollars each year. Along with this, the department has received backlash over its gas usage and noise disturbances.

All of these things disproportionately affect Black and Brown people, as well as women in the Air Support Unit.

There have also been messages sent to the city council members urging the defunding of the LAPD Air Support Division claiming that the fleet is a “notoriously unpopular, abusive, and costly arm of the city’s law enforcement apparatus,” and suggesting that the costs are greater than any help the fleet provides to the public.

Officers in the Air

At any given moment there are at least two helicopters circling Los Angeles. The Command Pilot and the Tactical Flight Officer rotate and work at least 10 hours a day, up to 4 days a week.

The helicopter unit provides eyes in the sky through their air patrols. The chopper is equipped with infrared detectors that can see if a suspect is hiding in a car, under a tree, or in other hidden locations in order to assist the ground patrol in detaining the suspect.

The Command Pilot operates the helicopter while the TFO communicates with the radios in order to assist in the crime. Both the TFO and the Command Pilot are full-time police officers and have gone through police training before joining the Air Support Division.

“You're used to the tactics and you know how to handle pursuits and followings and things like that. You know, the higher, I guess, the higher the number of emergency situations,” said Muro.

However, if the pilots don’t properly use their training and keep up with maintenance checks, disaster can strike. Kobe Bryant is an example of the damage that can follow when the equipment and the pilot are not performing their best.

In an Annenberg Media analysis, data shows the negative effects of not replacing helicopters’ materials damaging overall flight hours and increasing the overall maintenance costs.

The LAPD Helicopter Unit has also received controversy from the public for landing on a West Hollywood street earlier this year. Residents were furious about the danger the public was in and the harm this potentially could have caused.

LAPD Badge (Photo Courtesy LAPD)

The Command Pilot operates the helicopter while the TFO communicates with the radios in order to assist in the crime. Both the TFO and the Command Pilot are full-time police officers and have gone through police training before joining the Air Support Division.

“You're used to the tactics and you know how to handle pursuits and followings and things like that. You know, the higher, I guess, the higher the number of emergency situations,” said Muro.

However, if the pilots don’t properly use their training and keep up with maintenance checks, disaster can strike. Kobe Bryant is an example of the damage that can follow when the equipment and the pilot are not performing their best.

In an Annenberg Media analysis, data shows the negative effects of not replacing helicopters’ materials damaging overall flight hours and increasing the overall maintenance costs.

The LAPD Helicopter Unit has also received controversy from the public for landing on a West Hollywood street earlier this year. Residents were furious about the danger the public was in and the harm this potentially could have caused.

Before the officers patrol in the air, they must first endure the proper police training for LAPD. They also are required to be a Police Officer for at least 5 years in patrol to apply, conduct an oral interview with 2 people from air support, and get tested based on their knowledge of maps.

Then the officers are ranked in order. After this, the officers go up in the air for a month where they are tested on their skills. From their respective divisions, the officers are given a flight suit and helmet after orientation and helicopter training.

The process behind the LAPD Air Support Uni(By Piper Vaughn).

How did we get here?

The Air Support Division began in 1956 with just one single helicopter. Today, it is home to the largest airborne law enforcement division in the world.

The Airborne policing at LAPD consists of primarily two different services: Air Support to Regular Operations (ASTRO) and Special Flights Section (SFS). An ASTRO air support helicopter crew comprises a Command Pilot and a Tactical Flight Officer (TFO).

In 1976, The Special Flights Section rendered more service and aid for detectives and certain investigative operations and assisted the ground units in capturing high-risk suspects and organized crimes. The Special Flights are crucial to the seizure of drugs and deadly weapons.

A 1970 study that was accredited by NASA and conducted by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s (JPL) Space Technology Applications Office confirmed the study.

According to LAPD’s website, the findings at the time were that the number of Property Crimes was reduced when there was the presence of a LAPD helicopter, and the number of arrests associated with radio calls was three times higher with the involvement of LAPD helicopter units, and the department ground-based officers universally support the airborne law enforcement program.

One of the core justifications for their budget increases stems from a NASA document that suggested that the unit was beneficial and the people of Los Angeles support the helicopter fleet.

The study says that “The citizens of Los Angeles accept helicopter patrols as a necessary part of the City’s police system and strongly favor their continuation.”

The NASA study was conducted over 50 years ago and has received criticisms for its use to represent the current state of the fleet- especially the public's opinion on the Helicopter Unit.

According to LAPD’s website, when there is the presence of an LAPD helicopter there are fewer ground-based officers required at crime scenes and perimeters, and the officers on the ground have a significantly increased level of safety.

The website also says that officers maintain a tactical advantage and the apprehension of a suspect improves, vehicle pursuit management reduces risk to the department as well as the community, and the overall injuries and deaths that are related to pursuit traffic collisions are reduced.

Muro agrees to the advantage.

“If you see police, if you see them regularly, you are less likely to engage in criminal activity in some areas,” she said.

Los Angeles has some of the worst air quality in the world…and the Helicopter fleet isn’t helping.

Although they are trying to help the public, they are hurting our environment.

In a study conducted by UCLA Nicholas Sharpio examined data from 2019-2020 and discovered that the LAPD Helicopter unit used over seven hundred thousand gallons of fuel, the equivalent of adding about 1,500 cars on the road.

Between the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department, the two combined have thirty-four helicopters and 4 small aircraft- the largest fleet in the country.

According to a CURBED article, “These 34 helicopters and four small aircraft also release 11,100 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually — far more pollution than Kylie Jenner's 17-minute jaunts to park her private jet.” The LAPD flies around 20 hours a day, 7 days a week, every single day of the year, according to the department. The effects of gas are damaging not only to the climate, but also pose health risks to the officers being surrounded by the chemicals for hours at a time.

A HEATED article says that Jenner would have to repeat the flight almost 9,000 times to match the yearly emissions accruing from the L.A. Helicopter Unit.

The UCLA Carceral Ecologies Lab and the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition sued the County of Los Angeles in January of 2023 for refusing to disclose documents regarding the helicopter fleet and preventing research on the potential economic and health of the county residents.

The fleet has also received criticism over excessively patrolling Black and Brown neighborhoods.

In an L.A. Times article, “Shapiro said the groups had found that in every census block of L.A. County that is more than 40% Black, the median elevation of helicopters was below 1,000 feet, the “minimum safe altitude.”

The Helicopter Unit brings a bad reputation for noise and has even negatively affected the ground unit's communication skills. The noise from the department's helicopters caused confusion between officers at a scene and even led to a suspect’s death.

Listen for the Sound of the LAPD Chopper flying over USC.

Defund the Police?

In a petition, over 30,000 people signed to “demand the LAPD end their wasteful use of helicopters” and claim that the chopper unit is unnecessary.

In trying to combat the calls for defunding, the Automated Helicopter Noise Complaint System (ACS) allows people to report helicopter noise disturbances in order to combat the negativity from the public.

Callers are given six options for the types of disturbances they can report:

- a hovering helicopter

- a loud helicopter

- a low-flying helicopter

- a circling helicopter

- multiple helicopters

- other helicopter activities

But the Helicopter Fleet Has Challenges of Its Own...

Tactical officers like Renee Muro face the daily battle of protecting a community that doesn’t always believe in them.

Her shifts are 10 hours at a time. She says that this takes a toll on her mental and physical health.

You're always sitting down like, I really just want to get up. I want to stretch out. I'd really love to go get something to drink. And you wear a helmet. It can be very exhausting. It's a tire. It's physically demanding, even though it doesn't look like it and I think people don't get that,” she said.

She also says that the noise and vibrations take a toll on her body as well as pulling G’s, which is when the pilots experience a force much greater than their weight.

“With all the noise, with the vibration, with the hard turns pulling G’s with you have to, you know, turn really hard. It's just not good for you, and then we don't turn to the right. We turn to the left. And after a while, your back or your hips will react to the overuse. So, yeah, it's not fun,” she said.

Lasers have been a threat to the pilots while the fleet is patrolling and Muro knows several people who have permanent eye damage from lasers. The fleet now has glasses to prevent and eliminate harsh light flares.

Along with this, the officers have no GPS system and have to base their patrols and responses based only on paper maps and memorization.

Muro says that her job also takes a toll on her mental health.

“It's kind of isolating being up there because we work out of one place. We don't really interact with other people and talk to them all day. People know my voice, but they don't know me,” she said.

Muro says that being in the workplace can be good at times, but in different aspects, it can be extremely challenging.

She says that out of 75 people in the fleet there are less than 10 female officers in the entire Air Support Department. This means the women in the unit are surrounded by men- and that you have to have thick skin.

Despite having been in the Air Support Division longer than everyone else, she still gets treated differently.

“You know, you have to give it right back. And then as a result, you know, I have some people that say I'm not nice or whatever,” she said.

Muro also elaborated on how because the Helicopter Fleet is patrol-driven, many of the women at the Los Angeles Police Department aren’t able to keep up with the rigorous job hours that the Air Force Division requires.

“[Women] don't want to do this job, they want to go inside and have inside and weekends off,” she said.

In June of 2023, Officer Sara Marin, an LAPD Helicopter pilot, sued the city of Los Angeles regarding gender and disability discrimination from supervisors who considered her to be overly emotional and incompetent to perform her job. Marin worked for the LAPD for over 20 years at the time of the lawsuit.

CompStat

CompStat is what is known to be a calculated control system that is created for the collection and feedback of information from crimes and other issues.

According to the Police Chief Magazine, the CompStat process is described as operating to “Collect, analyze, and map crime data and other essential police performance measures on a regular basis, and hold police managers accountable for their performance as measured by these data.”

Based on CompStat information from 2020 and 2021, the LAPD helicopters responded to over 67,000 incidents during the two-year period, flew 25,000 hours, and responded to over 10,000 radio calls.

The Financial Breakdown of the Air Support Unit

In the LAPD Proposed Budget conducted last year, the department requested over 16 million dollars in funds for airbus replacements and officer training.

As of March of 2023, LAPD’s overall budget is asking for an additional $118,834,040, bringing LAPD’s total direct costs to $1,995,664,930 for the overall city budget in the 2023-24 year. Which is over a 6% increase compared to last year.

The article also mentions that there have been about “780 new cops, two new helicopters, a $50 million increase in overtime, $80,000 in cell phones for “shadow teams,” and $30,000 for snacks while working during protests.”

Despite any criticism, Muro only hopes more people would understand the demanding efforts the Air Support Division overcomes to keep the people of L.A. safer.

“It is a difficult job. It's not as easy as people think. And I know some people come up to me and think there's going to be a piece of cake, and it's not,” she said.