Essex Police Air Support Unit

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Although the potential use of helicopters in police work was recognised a long time ago, it was not until July 1990 that the Essex Police Air Support Unit was founded.

AIR SUPPORT

This new unit became a permanent addition to Essex Police in April 1991 and was part of the force's Support Division. The unit is based at an old airfield at Boreham, to the north of Chelmsford, which was originally used by the United States Air Force during World War II. The old airfield control tower is now the Air Support base, with purpose built hangar and helicopter pad.

Air Support is manned by an inspector, who is responsible for the daily work of the unit, a sergeant and five constables, who are known as air observers, plus three civilian pilots. The team is backed up by a further ten reserve air observers who are available to cover duties when required.  

Helicopters were first used for police work in Essex in March 1967 when the Home Office, in liaison with the army, ran an evaluation course in Wiltshire. Four Essex inspectors attended, and later manned the helicopter when it spent two weeks patrolling over Essex.

HELICOPTER

The current helicopter is an Aerospatial AS 355F1 Twin Squirrel and was made in France. It is powered by two gas turbine engines which run on Jet A1 fuel. The flying endurance time is 2.5 hours and the speed can vary from hovering at 0 mph to 135 mph. It weighs 2400 kilograms. A helicopter has been purchased , to replace the current, leased, aircraft in April 1998.

EQUIPMENT

The aircraft's technical equipment includes a 30 million candlepower searchlight, which allows incidents to be illuminated at night, and a 700 watt public address system. The aircraft is also fitted with a sophisticated thermal image camera which allows the crew to see heat sources, such as a hiding suspect, in total darkness as if they were watching a black and white TV picture.

They also carry a colour TV camera for daytime surveillance and various other equipment including; stabilised binoculars, a variety of radios, high grade camera systems, a small video camera, a mobile phone and detailed maps.

OPERATIONAL

Due to a partnership with Cambridgeshire Constabulary the unit is now operational seven days a week throughout the year. The helicopter can reach any part of Essex within fifteen minutes, and is used for a wide variety of police tasks. These include; searching large open areas for criminals and evidence of crime, tracing missing people, pursuing stolen motor vehicles and photographing scenes of crime and accidents.

It has also been used as a rapid means of transporting specialist police officers, such as dog-handlers and marksmen, to the scene of a crime, where its searchlight, public address system and thermal image equipment can be invaluable to the police officers on the ground.

Air Support has gone from strength to strength since its introduction 1990. During 1996/1997 Air Support was deployed more than 1600 times and assisted in 110 arrests.

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