2/12/2025
TO: PUBLIC SAFETY, FINANCE
AND STRATEGIC SUPPORT
COMMITTEE
FROM: Paul Joseph
SUBJECT: Police Department Air
Support Status Report
DATE: January 27, 2025
Approved Date:
COUNCIL DISTRICT: Citywide
RECOMMENDATION
Accept the status report on the Police Department’s Air Support Unit current and planned activities.
BACKGROUND
The San José Police Department’s Air-Support Unit (ASU) is a vital component of the City’s strategy to provide public safety services to the community. The purpose of this memorandum is to report to the Public Safety, Finance and Strategic Support Committee on the current status of the unit and future planned activities.
For over a century, the use of aircraft has proven to be an integral part of a fully functioning law enforcement agency. Whether conducting surveillance for various units, assisting in rescue efforts, dealing with disasters and emergencies, assisting patrol officers with their day-to-day activities, or transporting detectives to a remote location to pick up a suspect, air units have repeatedly proven their value as an indispensable asset to a department’s mission.
The San José Police Department’s (Department) Air Support Unit (ASU) consists of one sergeant, three pilots, and two tactical flight officers (TFOs); all personnel are sworn Department members. The pilots are licensed pilots and have earned flight instructor, instrument, and even airline transport ratings. While the pilot oversees overall aircraft safety, flight, and communication with air traffic control, the TFO handles all law enforcement-related operations aboard the aircraft. These responsibilities include managing critical incidents and pursuits, tracking fleeing felons, locating missing persons, and coordinating rescue efforts. Due to the complexity and importance of PSFSS COMMITTEE AGENDA: 2/20/25
ITEM: (d)3.
PUBLIC SAFETY, FINANCE, AND STRATEGIC SUPPORT COMMITTEE January 27, 2025
Subject: Police Department Air Support Status Report
these duties, TFOs receive intensive training and are typically veteran officers with a background in special operations.
The Department currently owns one Airbus H125 Helicopter, commonly called an A-Star, referred to as “AIR3.” The helicopter was purchased in 2017. The helicopter has access to the Department’s Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) program with a global positioning system (GPS) interface. AIR3 is outfitted with an upgraded thermal imaging camera system and can downlink real-time video from the air. The helicopter is primarily used for in-progress felony crimes, response to priority 1 and 2 911 calls for service, pursuits, and searches for criminals or at-risk missing persons.
ANALYSIS
Since its delivery date in August 2018, ASU has accumulated approximately 5,650 hours of flight time on AIR3. This is roughly 900 to 1,000 hours of flight time accumulated on AIR3 each year.
Throughout the law enforcement community, helicopters are considered a “force multiplier” in that the impact of one aircraft on the effectiveness of a law enforcement agency is equivalent to that of multiple ground units. In a published report, the Law Enforcement Management Institute of Texas stated the following about the value of helicopters to the mission of law enforcement: “Helicopters can handle more calls for service than ground units, reduce pursuit liabilities, and increase officer safety.
Helicopters cover a larger area with the same crime reduction effectiveness as several patrol units.”1In 2024, one officer in AIR3 was the equivalent of having 38 patrol officers on the ground in the number of stolen vehicle arrests.2 The availability of aircraft has regularly relieved the burden on patrol officers by reducing their workload and making the officers more efficient.
With decreased staffing levels challenging law enforcement agencies across the country, air support is more important than ever. San José Police Department (SJPD) uses AIR3 to augment patrol units on the ground for support in response to calls for service, vehicle pursuits, foot pursuits, rescues, and other outcomes. According to the Department’s Program Manager’s Report (PMR), AIR3 yielded the following results in 2024:
• 1,230 response events
• 100 vehicle pursuits
• 83% of events where AIR3 was the first unit on scene
1 “An Analysis of Helicopters as an Effective Law Enforcement Tool in Travis County, Texas,” Law Enforcement Management Institute of Texas. https://shsu-ir.tdl.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/72ea01ce17ca-4705-90e8-7877c3b363a9/content 2 2024 Stolen Vehicle arrests based on SJPD Crime Analysis end-of-year report.
PUBLIC SAFETY, FINANCE, AND STRATEGIC SUPPORT COMMITTEE January 27, 2025
Subject: Police Department Air Support Status Report
• 108 foot pursuits
• 30 guns recovered
• 16 Fire Department assists
• 460 arrests
• 1 rescue
• 11 located missing persons
As a patrol resource, ASU frees up officers to respond to more calls for service, as well as makes them safer and more effective. ASU provides the ability to respond rapidly to any patrol event, give tactical insight to responding or on-scene units, and give airborne assessments of incidents in real-time. This dramatically increases officers’ apprehension rates while also decreasing the risk these apprehensions pose to officers and the general public.
In addition to patrol, ASU frequently assists Special Operations and the Bureau of Investigations (BOI) in their respective functions. ASU is frequently overhead on SJPD Special Operations missions, providing valuable situational awareness. The unit also helps BOI personnel conduct search warrant services, arrest warrant services, and ongoing investigations, such as homicides and robberies.
SJPD ASU assists outside agencies on a case-by-case basis when a major violent crime occurs. SJPD ASU is the only full-time air support unit in Santa Clara County and several neighboring counties, including the counties of San Mateo County, Santa Cruz County, San Benito County, San Francisco County, and Alameda County (though they do not currently fly at night). While the California Highway Patrol also serves this vast area (from Sacramento County to San Benito County), their airbase is located in Napa, which is a 45-minute flight away, and their helicopter is often unavailable to respond due to low cloud layers in the northern Bay Area.
Large-scale critical incidents, such as disasters, civil unrest, and highly populated entertainment/social events, represent a significant drain on local law enforcement resources. Command officers coordinating these events rely heavily on real-time information provided by ground units on scene. However, this information can often conflict or lack overall context when coming from disparate sources. Air units provide this overall context and “deconfliction” due to their ability to see an entire area from the air. This can be TFOs relaying information to command staff members or the commanders observing directly from a mobile aerial platform (via a live downlink). The need for real-time information and situational awareness for command officers was identified in the After-Action Report for the 2020 public protests, civil unrest, and law enforcement response, that specifically identified the lack of available aircraft as a contributing factor to some of the failures.
PUBLIC SAFETY, FINANCE, AND STRATEGIC SUPPORT COMMITTEE January 27, 2025
Subject: Police Department Air Support Status Report
Like critical incidents, search and rescue situations can be very resource-intensive.
Whether searching for a lost hiker in mountainous terrain or an at-risk missing person in an urban environment, these incidents frequently require searching a very large area within a specified timeframe. ASU allows the City and neighboring agencies to search large areas over a short period while simultaneously coordinating ground search teams.
When searching for at-risk missing persons, AIR3 uses its loudspeaker, which is part of its public address system, to notify people on the ground about the search. This often leads to the Department receiving helpful information about the missing individual’s whereabouts. Additionally, when locating an individual in distress or imminent danger, AIR3 is often the only asset capable of reaching this individual and delivering them to medical care.
ASU is frequently the first entity to report fires because of its vantage point in the air.
AIR3 has flown over fires and advised firefighters of “hot-electrified” trees, which would have immediately electrocuted and killed a firefighter. AIR3 has advised firefighters of hot zones in structure fires and warned them of imminent structure collapse, which would have collapsed on and trapped involved fire personnel. AIR3 maps the hot spots of wildfires in the San José area so that aerial firefighting and ground personnel can attack the fire from the most advantageous locations. AIR3 has flown San José Fire Department command personnel over fires to give them overall command views of wildland fire suppression.
ASU has provided support to other City Departments and partners. For example, the unit provided Geographic Information System support by recording video footage to map changes in flood levels along creeks and to identify encampments at risk that would require evacuations during a flood emergency. ASU has also recorded video for the City Manager’s Office of Emergency Management to assess flooding and fire risks, including the eastern foothills during the 2020 SCU Lightening Complex. Other external support has included critical infrastructure checks, water flow and damage integrity checks on Anderson Dam, and assistance to internet fiberoptic cable infrastructure services.
ASU is currently certified and has full-rescue capabilities. Personnel are trained bimonthly, and annual outside vendors provide training to stay current and proficient in the art of conducting rescue missions. ASU can extract injured hikers from hiking areas, injured mountain bikers from remote locations, and flood victims from rooftops. ASU’s current rescue capabilities include putting injured victims in a rescue litter or rescue apparatus, depending on the nature of their injuries. ASU is currently exploring expanding its rescue capabilities to include water rescues.
Challenges Facing ASU
AIR3 is currently the Department’s only airship, which limits consistent aerial presence.
When AIR3 is down for maintenance or other reasons, such as bad weather and short staffing, there are no other aerial options available to assist with major events or with
PUBLIC SAFETY, FINANCE, AND STRATEGIC SUPPORT COMMITTEE January 27, 2025
Subject: Police Department Air Support Status Report
day-to-day patrol operations. AIR3’s availability for calendar year 2024 is shown below in Figure 1.
Figure 1. Annual aircraft availability for AIR3
SJPD has the lowest number of aircraft based on population size compared to other jurisdictions. Figure 2 shows the number of aircraft owned per 1 million residents benchmarks to comparable major city law enforcement agencies.
Figure 2. Number of aircraft per one million residents.
PUBLIC SAFETY, FINANCE, AND STRATEGIC SUPPORT COMMITTEE January 27, 2025
Subject: Police Department Air Support Status Report
Like any piece of machinery, helicopters require more maintenance the longer and more frequently they are used. Conversely, the more aircraft operated by an agency, the less each will be used, the longer they will last, and the lower the cost of maintenance will be. As a point of reference, in Calendar Year 2023, AIR3 was operational 64% of the time. In 2024, that number dropped to 45%. AIR3 is only budgeted for 4.5 hours of flight time per day, which means it was in the air 1,055 hours in 2023 and only 739 hours in 2024, almost entirely due to maintenance downtime. Twenty-four days into 2025, AIR3 has logged only 19 out of 108 possible flight hours, or roughly 18%, again mostly due to maintenance. If this rate persists (based on this small sample size), AIR3 will log approximately 300 hours in 2025.
Naturally, more downtime equates to more maintenance costs. Now, in its eighth year of service, AIR3 has passed the fiscal tipping point, where it costs more money to maintain than it would have cost to purchase a new helicopter approximately two years ago. The ideal scenario, which many law enforcement agencies employ, is to own and operate at least two, preferably three, aircraft and use them each less, leading to lower maintenance costs and longer lifespans. Lower flight time on the aircraft can also lead to higher asset value when it comes time to sell and replace aircraft. The higher selling price can lead to a sizable offset when purchasing newer aircraft, meaning the City’s investment will be substantially lower.
Future Plans
ASU’s top priority for the future is to obtain a fixed-wing airplane. For several decades, law enforcement agencies have favored helicopters as an observation platform to assist ground units in their day-to-day activities. The multi-role capabilities of the helicopter make it a staple aircraft for air support units worldwide. However, while essential to the overall airborne law enforcement mission, helicopters do possess certain limitations.
They have a relatively short range, limited flight time, and, due to weight restrictions, are unable to carry significant loads.
Additionally, the maintenance costs and “downtime” requirements of helicopters tend to create significant breaks in availability that far surpass those experienced by non-rotary wing aircraft. These factors, combined with technology improvements in imaging systems that use sensors to detect and identify objects, have driven modern law enforcement agencies to increasingly rely on fixed-wing aircraft, in addition to helicopters, to achieve their day-to-day goals. Figure 3 evaluates the pros and cons between fixed-wing and helicopter aircraft, as well as the overlapping benefits.
PUBLIC SAFETY, FINANCE, AND STRATEGIC SUPPORT COMMITTEE January 27, 2025
Subject: Police Department Air Support Status Report
Figure 3. Evaluation of pros and cons between fixed-wing and helicopter aircraft The Department owned and operated a fixed-wing airplane for over 30 years until it was sold in 2019 with the intention of replacing the fixed-wing in the future as financial resources allowed. The fixed-wing aircraft was extremely useful to the Department, regularly conducting surveillance, extraditions, and emergency officer transports. Due to budgetary constraints, the replacement fixed-wing purchase was put on hold. The loss of the fixed-wing aircraft has significantly decreased ASU’s capacity to provide aerial support to the community.
A fixed-wing aircraft would service the City for approximately 20 years. The Department estimates that a fixed-wing aircraft, along with an additional A-Star helicopter (for a total of two), would enable the Department to have aerial coverage 100% of the time. The fixed-wing aircraft could be deployed on extended events and maintain coverage over longer duration critical incidents while reducing hours on the helicopters. The fixed-wing aircraft could also provide mission-critical capabilities that the helicopter is unable to provide and stay airborne longer during major events (see Figure 3 above).
The current lead time from purchase of an aircraft to delivery is approximately 1.5 to 2 years. The procurement time of 2 years is due to manufacturer build-up time and lead time to purchase (“made when purchased”) unique to law enforcement aviation equipment. The Department will continue to seek funding through state and federal
PUBLIC SAFETY, FINANCE, AND STRATEGIC SUPPORT COMMITTEE January 27, 2025
Subject: Police Department Air Support Status Report
grants. The City Council adopted aerial support as a legislative position in its 2025 Legislative Program and Legislative Priorities on January 14, 20253. The Administration published Manager’s Budget Addendum #31 on June 2, 2024, to provide information on the cost implications associated with replacements and expansions of the Air Support Unit during the FY 2024-2025 budget process. If the request is made to the General Fund, it will need to be brought up through the budget development process and will be considered in the context of the City’s overall financial conditions and City Council priorities.
Finally, a new hangar intended to house two aircraft is currently under construction.
ASU anticipates completion in the summer of 2025. This project is funded by the Disaster Preparedness, Public Safety, and Infrastructure Bond Measure (Measure T), which was approved by City voters in 2018. The project consists of constructing a new one-story building with an office area and a hangar bay for the Police Air Support Unit helicopter at 1114 Coleman Avenue, with a site area of approximately 26,000 square feet. The site is located near the intersection with Airport Boulevard south of the new Airport Rescue and Firefighting Facility/Fire Station No. 20 facility, and it is within the San José Mineta International Airport property.
COORDINATION
This memorandum has been coordinated with the City Attorney’s Office and the City Manager’ Budget Office.
Paul Joseph
Chief of Police
For questions, please contact Police Sergeant Josh Erbes of the SJPD Air Support Unit, at [email protected].
3 Manager’s Budget Addendum -
https://www.sanjoseca.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/112490/638529436919170000