Faced with labor shortages, inexperienced pilots, expanding missions and, at times, public hostility, law enforcement aviation units are learning to adapt.

The last two and a half years have brought challenges and pressures that forced a great deal of change, especially in public safety. An already politically charged and divided world plunged into a global pandemic that rocked the economy, public health, and political activism. In the United States, division over public health mandates, the rising social justice movement with its calls to defund the police, pressures on the southern border, and changes in missions driven by public health have put tremendous stress on law enforcement and its airborne divisions.

Across the board, most airborne law enforcement units have experienced a steady increase in demand and changes in missions, all while managing labor challenges. Tools of the trade are changing too, allowing departments to do more with less – or at least do their jobs more effectively.

Labor woes

One of the most pressing issues facing airborne law enforcement is a dwindling labor pool. Agencies and departments struggle to retain and attract qualified pilots, mechanics, and, to a lesser extent, observers and tactical flight officers (TFOs).

Bryan Smith, safety program manager for the Airborne Public Safety Association (APSA), has seen an anti-law enforcement mentality trend exact a toll on public safety servants across the nation, and specifically in the pilot community.

“What we do is not a common skillset,” he says. “Firefighting, search and rescue, law enforcement skills and experience are not things you learn in standard commercial pilot training. You must attract and train people and then retain them, which is becoming a real struggle.”

Growing pressures are draining the workforce, Smith says. “Many are leaving for other jobs that pay better, especially as other sectors of aviation are willing to take and train helicopter people. I’ve talked to a lot of people who left because of the sentiment about law enforcement. They’re tired of negative feedback and the atmosphere around law enforcement culturally. No one does this for the money. They do it out of a passion to serve the community and protect people. When they’re no longer appreciated, or worse, harassed at work and home, they don’t want to be a part of it.

“[Also], the stress of a high extra workload during COVID – where people worried about other important things in addition to their jobs like their health, their families, their kids at home when schools closed – has led to a lot of people leaving. In many cases we’re having to replace them with people without a specific background in public safety. We’re losing the experience we need to do the job safely. Most places I’ve seen have been reluctant to adjust standards. That’s resulted in not being able to provide services they did before.”

Smith sees the maintenance side suffering the most. In addition to a lack of mechanics, those qualified graduates of A&P schools who are coming to agencies have almost no helicopter knowledge; helicopter-specific training isn’t required for their technician license. They need to be trained in-house, putting extra pressure on the agency’s existing mechanics, all while the helicopters fly more often for increased calls, he explains.

The Arizona Department of Public Safety (AZDPS) is feeling this pressure firsthand. The department is tasked with supporting public safety agencies across the state with search and rescue (SAR), medical evacuation, and law enforcement helicopter support, especially in the more remote areas of the state. Equipped and certified for night operations, its aircraft are the only helicopters that can help with night SAR in the Grand Canyon.

The department currently operates four Bell 407s and a Bell 429, with plans to eventually move to all Bell 429s for better SAR and hoist capabilities. Operating from four bases around the state with a total of 15 pilots and 15 paramedics, AZDPS is experiencing an escalating labor shortage.

“It’s hard to get staffing throughout the DPS, especially in aviation,” says AZDPS Chief Pilot Hunter French. “We’ve really had issues with staffing. Of course, funding is always an issue for that, too. Overall, we’re having trouble finding people, hiring them onboard, and having them fit in the budget.”

“You must attract and train people and then retain them, which is becoming a real struggle.”

Historically, AZDPS required its pilots and paramedics to be sworn officers. Over the years, to better attract and retain highly qualified pilots with the technical and altitude experience required, the agency moved toward hiring civilians and providing them the option to attend the academy. With increased budget concerns, the academy option is no longer offered, and the department is now considering hiring civilian paramedics.

“There are certain costs to sending people through the academy and other sworn-officer employment expenses,” French explains. “Hiring civilians and providing internal training on the operation and aircraft has relieved some pressure on staffing and budgets. But we’re still struggling to maintain [a full staff].”

At Seminole County Sheriff’s Office in Sanford, Florida, staffing also is a concern. Operating two Airbus H125 helicopters across the county to support SAR, fire suppression, and public safety, the aviation unit is currently staffed. However, there has been a reduction in the number of deputies from the country and city police applying for part-time TFO positions, according to Seminole County Chief Pilot Lt. Steve Farris.

“The number of people wanting to get into government and police work has decreased and we’re faced with a challenge in today’s current climate to get people interested in this line of work,” he says.

Seminole County trains pilots and TFOs internally as opposed to hiring experienced civilian pilots. Farris plans for future attrition by keeping a steady pipeline of TFOs transitioning into flight training and patrol officers entering the aviation unit as TFOs. Even this tactic, however, still leaves him with openings as officers move on for promotions, he says.

In addition, the next generation of the U.S. workforce is bringing a new set of expectations that challenge how the sheriff’s office operates. The office traditionally called on officers to do their assigned job and then take on additional special assignments, such as supporting the aviation unit.

“We’re hearing from recruiters that the next generation isn’t interested in the extra work to get into aviation,” Farris says. “They just want to come and do their job [and] then go home and have free time. We are having to evolve by adjusting how we work with these folks by providing flex time and other accommodations. We are also changing some of our other hiring requirements. We didn’t used to allow beards or visible tattoos. We’ve had to relax those, too, in order to widen the candidate pool.”

Mission expansion

Farris has seen his Seminole County unit respond to an increasing number of opioid-related calls in the last few years, from disoriented people wondering off, to opioid-fed domestic violence and drug-related deaths. The county has worked to battle this issue – a larger problem than COVID was in this conservative county that had few pandemic restrictions, Farris notes – and the aviation unit has stepped in to help.

“People are having a hard time and looking for outlets,” he says. “We see so much more drug abuse, drug-related violence, and mental illness now; even with further outreach and making Narcan more available, our calls in this area are rising.”

In Arizona and other border states, agencies are experiencing increased calls to help patrol the international border with Mexico. The AZDPS now assists the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) four days a month with its Tucson-based aircraft, for instance. This support is on-call and responds to a variety of calls based on the need of the day. French says a lot of what the aircraft does is help CBP identify, track, and apprehend drug and human traffickers in Arizona, though it is not uncommon to assist with SAR calls related to the CBP work.

Civil unrest and activism across the nation also increased law enforcement call outs. Aerial assets provided a bird’s eye view to efficiently patrol and help deploy assets where needed during times of unrest and peaceful marches alike, helping ensure public safety.

Embracing the new

Challenges and change foster innovation. One significant example is the incorporation of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) into public safety work. Dan Schwarzbach, executive director and CEO of the APSA, reports many public service agencies around the world have begun operating UAS with considerable success. In some cases, smaller agencies that would not have been able to operate a manned aircraft unit are entering airborne law enforcement with UAS.

Early attempts to adopt smaller UAVs faced considerable public pushback over privacy concerns, Schwarzbach says. Since that time, agencies have adopted practices that have successfully brought them into use.

“In the beginning there was a lot of concern about public perception of UAS. A lot of leaders then began moving forward with transparency and communication. We’re not seeing as much concern in those cases. We’ve learned as an industry to involve the community and civil rights watchdog organizations such as the ACLU to review policies. Through transparent policies and straightforward communication, including using social media when we can, we have gone a long way to make UAS more acceptable to the public. I’ve seen more law enforcement agencies become more assertive in UAS use when they’re following guidelines and adhering to these lessons learned.”

The Michigan State Police (MSP) added UAS equipped with high-definition cameras in 2014, which were approved by the FAA to operate statewide in 2015, the first approval of its kind. The aircraft are successfully used to map accidents, search for lost people, perform investigation mapping, inspect natural disasters, and conduct surveillance.

“We found adding UAS to our aerial assets to be a nice marriage because we could bring the experience of airborne law enforcement and add a new tool to the mix,” says Lt. Pat Lawrence, a pilot with the MSP aviation division. “We found new missions we didn’t think we could do with aviation, but now we can. At the same time, there are missions that aren’t right for UAS, so we slide over to the helicopter. It’s a good mix.”

UAS are also expanding in Washington state’s Spokane County Sheriff’s Office. Similar to MSP, the aircraft are used to map accidents, help with fires, and assist with suspect apprehension.
“They are being used to save time and money,” says Dave Ellis, undersheriff for Spokane County Sheriff’s Office. “Take mapping traffic accidents, for instance. The drone can map it in 30 minutes, where it could take hours of closed roads when done by hand. We are also seeing a lot of small agencies that couldn’t afford a helicopter are now getting into aerial law enforcement with the UAS. That’s been a real big shift.”

Spokane County operates four helicopters and five drones but doesn’t see the helicopter side being threatened. Ellis says the addition of UAS has allowed the office to do more, and in some cases, free the helicopters to expand in other areas.

Recent technology advancements have also provided significant support to airborne public safety work. Prior to the civil unrest in Michigan in response to George Floyd’s death, MSP added high-definition camera and microwave downlinks to their aircraft.

“These advancements were very helpful during the civil unrest, and continue to be in many other instances,” says MSP’s Lawrence. “This allows us to send live video to our command center so they can accurately distribute resources where needed. We are able to be a force multiplier.”

APSA’s Smith credits high-definition cameras for increased safety as well. Noting the crystal-clear images that can be captured from more than 1,000 feet away, he argues law enforcement aircraft can fly higher, limiting their safety exposure and lowering noise impact on those on the ground. The latter can also help with public relations – not a bad thing to emphasize in today’s environment, he says.