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Protecting the lives and property of Montgomery County residents at a time of economic downturn and more limited resources is no picnic. With growing demands, my men and women are stretched thin.
That's why doing a pilot project Police Aviation Unit — with no cost to taxpayers over a two-year trial period — makes perfect sense.
I am trying to improve our crime-fighting strategies to continue the decline in the county's violent crime rates, and I am trying to do more with less. The Montgomery County Police Department has fewer officers than just two years ago. This reduction in needed resources due to tight fiscal times means we have to get smarter and more efficient in keeping our community safe.
We have a unique opportunity right now to use helicopters for our police service delivery with no county taxpayer funding and without affecting the funding for any other police resource. We have donated helicopters. The hangar to house the units is already owned by the county and was empty. We have a cadre of military-trained pilots who are already experienced police officers. And we have enough money, seized from drug and organized crime cases, to pay for the maintenance, fuel, equipment and other operating costs for the next two years — just what that seized-asset monies are meant to fund.
Montgomery County is the only large jurisdiction in the D.C. region that does not have a police aviation unit. We need one. During my tenure as chief of the Fairfax County Police Department, the helicopters proved their value day in and day out. They are a force-multiplier resource that improves crime-fighting efforts. They reduce the risk to everyone during high-speed pursuits. They will result in more immediate apprehensions for crimes in progress. They better manage major traffic issues — and find lost children and adults much more efficiently.
Just within the past couple of weeks, we spent more than 24 hours searching for a 74-year-old woman suffering from Alzheimer's disease, using dozens of police officers. On the second day of the search, she was found lying on a backyard deck a few blocks away (where the homeowners were out of town). Eyes in the sky could have found this woman in minutes, not days. A day later, we had an officer chase an armed drug offender. The bad guy threw the gun down and was able to escape. He would not have been able to elude a police helicopter.
Few dispute the value of an aviation unit, but focus instead on the assumed cost. The reality is that the federal grants combined with drug forfeiture funds will allow us to pilot this program for two years at no cost to the county taxpayer. Therefore, the service costs the county budget nothing for two years. After a thorough evaluation by the independent CountyStat office, we can determine if the program is worth continuing and carry on with the program as the budget allows.
If the Montgomery County Council decides it won't accept the federal grant money, it will be the people who live and work in Montgomery County who will lose out on a proven crime-fighting resource. Public safety professionals get it. So does County Executive Ike Leggett. A police helicopter is "getting smart on crime." Two years of an aviation resource for no county tax dollars makes good sense from a public safety and fiscal responsibility perspective.
The writer is chief of the Montgomery County Police Department.