Sept. 22, 2009

Four men commit a gunpoint robbery in Yonkers. A thief steals from cars in Mount Pleasant. Burglars break into a Port Chester school.

These criminals – and others – ended up behind bars this summer thanks to help from the Aviation Unit of the Westchester County Department of Public Safety. The unit, winding down its busiest summer ever, has provided a record number of hours of assistance to Westchester’s municipal police departments this year.

From its perch in the skies above Westchester, the Aviation Unit this summer also detected large marijuana fields near the Westchester-Putnam border and off the Cross County Parkway; spotted drag-racers on the New York State Thruway and Hutchinson River Parkway, leading to several arrests; recovered two stolen motorcycles by utilizing Lojack technology, and provided aerial support during special summer anti-crime initiatives in Mount Vernon and Yonkers.

“From our southern cities to towns on our northern border, the county police helicopter is being utilized more than ever by police all across Westchester,” said County Executive Andy Spano. ““The Aviation Unit is an invaluable resource, not only for the Department of Public Safety but for all law enforcement in our county. The Aviation Unit is a great example of a shared service that is provided by the county at no cost to local communities.”

The unit also conducted searches for missing children in Pleasantville and Valhalla this summer and for an elderly woman suffering from Alzheimer’s disease who had wandered away from caregivers in Yonkers. 

Through Aug. 31, 2009, the Aviation Unit had flown 583 missions in support of municipal police departments in Westchester, an increase of 153 percent from the same period a year earlier.

Aviation Unit activity this summer included:

• June 6: In Mount Pleasant, the unit assisted police in locating a man who had fled from a restaurant parking lot after breaking into numerous cars.
• June 27: After a robbery in southwest Yonkers, the county police helicopter spotted four men fitting the description of the suspects numerous blocks from the crime scene, leading to their arrest.
• July 4: When a burglar alarm was activated at Port Chester High School, the Aviation Unit was in the area and arrived first at the scene, maintaining aerial surveillance as local police arrived. Four suspects were subsequently found hiding inside the school by Port Chester police officers. The suspects later disclosed that they had wanted to flee after the alarm sounded but decided not to because they could hear the police helicopter outside.
• July 4: When an elderly woman who suffers from Alzheimer’s wandered away from home in Yonkers, the Aviation Unit was able to deploy Project Lifesaver technology to hone in on a frequency being emitted from an electronic monitoring bracelet she was wearing. It directed officers on the ground to the area where the woman could be found.
• Aug. 6-7: On two separate occasions, suspects in vehicles fled from police checkpoints set up during an anti-crime initiative in Mount Vernon and were tracked by the Aviation Unit to locations in Mount Vernon and Pelham, where they were placed under arrest. The presence of the helicopter during this operation enabled police officers on the ground to avoid a motor vehicle pursuit because they knew the suspects’ cars could not outrun the helicopter.
• Aug.9: Responding to the initial report of a home invasion robbery at a Yonkers apartment, the Aviation Unit was able to observe a man fleeing from the rear of the building as Yonkers police arrived out front. The information was communicated to police on the ground, a perimeter was established, and the suspect was subsequently flushed out of hiding by Yonkers officers.
• "One of the primary missions of the Department of Public Safety is to be an ever-present resource for all police departments in Westchester,” Public Safety Commissioner Thomas Belfiore said. “Our Aviation Unit is one of the key ways we are able to do that. The working relationship between our Aviation Unit and local law enforcement continues to grow stronger each year.”
  
  Some of the unit’s assistance to local police occurs through missions that are planned and coordinated in advance. In addition, the helicopter responds to local communities when crimes occur to assist in the search for suspects. For example, the Aviation Unit also responded to Bedford to help search for suspects who robbed a Katonah jewelry store; to Somers and Greenburgh for searches for burglary suspects, to Ossining for a search for a larceny suspect and to New Rochelle for a search for robbery suspects.
  
  The “birds-eye-view” offered by the helicopter gives police a huge advantage over suspects seeking to elude officers on the ground, said Police Officer Chris Lieberman, the unit’s chief pilot.
  
  “Helicopters provide a unique perspective. While the ground officer can at best see only two sides of a building, the helicopter crew can see all four sides, the roof, behind fences and around corners. Most importantly, we can maintain visual surveillance of all these areas simultaneously,” Lieberman said.
  
  In addition to assisting police officers on the ground, the Aviation Unit has a multi-faceted mission as it patrols over Westchester in one of its two helicopters: a Bell 407 and an OH-6. The unit conducts daily inspections of: remote areas of county parks and properties inaccessible by ground units; the Hudson River, Long Island Sound and their shorelines to identify environmental violations, including illegal dumping and illegal discharges into the waterways; critical infrastructure such as Indian Point, the Tappan Zee Bridge, Kensico Dam, Westchester County Airport, and other high-profile locations as part of counter-terrorism efforts.
  
  The unit’s helicopters are equipped with a range of sophisticated equipment, including night-vision technology, a powerful spotlight, and a Bambi-bucket that can carry and dump water on brush fires. Its sophisticated video technology is used for surveillance and evidence-gathering purposes, and a video downlink capability allows aerial images to be broadcast to incident commanders on the ground.
  
  “Police officers in Westchester and the communities they serve are all safer because of the Aviation Unit,” Belfiore said.