Although even today a good thermal imaging camera can still be able to tack you through trees in the middle of the night. Then it's just a case of radiondown that "He's behind that third bush on the left." And half the time they never knew they were being tailed by a helicopter and can't figure out how the hell they got found.

Although I am not employed by a law enforcement agency in the role of helicopter support, I do fly helicopters as a profession and I have spoken to both Customs and Law Enforcement pilots about their roles before.

Generally helicopters operating in support of ground units will fly at around 300 to 400 ft. This ensures good obstacle clearance for most power/telephone lines in rural and suburban areas. Also, should the helicopter experience any kind of mechanical difficulties, it is in a good position to effect an emergency landing.

If a helicopter becomes low on fuel during a long pursuit one of two things will happen: either the airborne asset will be pulled off for refueling and then rejoin the chase or it will be replaced by a fresh asset.

The only restricted airspace police helicopters are likely to encounter are around airports and various sites of national security. (White House, Pentagon, etc.) Generally, law enforcement helicopters are granted permission to enter airport airspace if it would not conflict with other airborne traffic. Even if a police helicopter is denied immediate entry, it will probably be allowed to enter once the aircraft on approach/departure has cleared the area. Also, in the wake of 9/11, airports have seen an increase in police and security presence. It wouldn't be hard for pursuit forces to radio ahead to those police already on site and have them waiting for the suspects.

If the pursuit splits up (one in a vehicle, one on foot) the airborne asset will probably stay with the vehicle. Foot pursuit isn't fast enough to warrant a helicopter overhead unless it's moving through dense woods or terrain difficult for pursuers to traverse.

Thermal Imaging systems (Forward Looking Infra Red) are difficult to fool using flares. Most feature a compensation that allows them to continue to view the area despite three or four 'hot spots'. The best bet in evading a helicopter equipped with one of these is to put a lot of obscurants in the air, smoke or rain or thermal chaff, anything that will disrupt the ability of the system to receive thermal energy from its targets.

As goofy as the wording under the "***" section is, its right off of the faa.gov website.

58 feet, 3 inches. Okay, I don't know. Generally they do one of two things-

1: They fly at a fairly low, but not dangerously low altitude so that they can keep the minor details in sight (like being about the read street signs). That means flying at a height of maybe 50 to 100 feet (at a guess based upon visual observations).

Low flight is the standard tactic during an active pursuit (police cars are in pursuit on the ground the the ghetto-bird is just doing overwatch).

2: They fly as high as they can while still keeping the vehicle in sight. They shut down all but the most necessary lights (especially the spot light) and use the infrared to keep an eye on the target vehicle.

This tactic is used to track a car when ground units are not actively pursuing the vehicle. It's useful after the ground units have broken off pursuit if the pursuit becomes too dangerous. They do this to try to let the suspect vehicle think they've lost their pursuers while still keeping track of where they bad guys are going so the ghetto-bird can direct ground units to move in when the suspect car reaches it's desination.

They break off pursuit with the chopper and turn it over to ground units. Those helicopers are freaking expensive and so are the pilots, they won't risk crashing one. On such a chase they're probably on the highway, so it's easy for the ground units to keep track of the suspect vehicle. Of course there is also the fact that by that time, they've generally passed into another jurisdiction, which means there may be a new helicoper to turn the chase over to.

Consider also that the news stations generally have agreements with the police departments. There are a lot more news helicopers in most cities than police helicopers and the news guys fly their choppers more often than the police. Dispatch generally knows who to call to see if they can talk the news choppers into lending a hand. The pilots aren't trained in police procedure, but they're still an eye in the sky, and the news stations like it because they get inside information and great footage for the evening news. Most news helicopers (in Denver at least) carry a police radio in the chopper for just these situations.

I really doubt the airport trick will work. They make a lot of use of the helicopter to check the perimeter of the airport in Denver, that means that the helicopter can fly around the airport all they want, including over the parking areas and over the terminal. They just can't fly over the runways. If you think your going to get a car on the runway, I'd rethink that plan. Once you break through the fence the airport will go into panic mode. Flights will be diverted, the airport will be locked down. They'll start playing nasty to get the car stopped in as safe an area as possible, including using lethal force to stop the car (orbital cow anyone?). This might damage the runway or taxiway or tarmac, but those things can be repaired, people cannot. If you break the fence onto the airfield, expect them to track you with cameras for the brief time it takes them to cancel take-offs and wave off landings. Then the chopper will come in (this will take under 2 minutes). By that time all the airport cops will be coming toward you with a "stop that car at all costs" attitude.

Not many. They have thermo, they have a very good zoom lense for visual or thermo. They can go just about anywhere you can. If you want to lose them, go under something. Just remember, the likely options for that are tunnels and parking garages. All of these are easy to surround with ground units and the helicopter can easily maneuver to keep visual on all exits. Remember also that most of these have cameras that make recordings.

The driver generally.

If they're looking for a specific person in the vehicle, they'll follow that person if they can. Say from an armed robbery and they know the gunman is the passenger- then they track him. Otherwise, they follow the driver. You always have charges on the driver after a pursuit, and often the passengers are just witnesses. Of course the helicpoter can keep track of multiple suspects moving away from a car in multiple directions at the same time (if the pilot and spotter are good).

Don't forget that in SR, they're probably going to have a few auxiliary drones backing the chopper up. Send the chopper after the driver, and the drones after the passengers.

Not entirely true. I am not aware of any law to that effect. Most police departments (as a matter of policy) do not arm their helicopters.

Some do. I've heard (from fairly reliable sources) of at least one department (enforcing drug smuggling in a rural area) that trained a SWAT sniper to work from a mount on the helicopter.

Probably true. Or more accuratly, they'll back off some, go for a high altitude, long distance view position and use the zoom lense with the IR to keep track of you.

And remember, firing at someone (including the helicopter) gives the ground-cops a green light to open up on you. And they will.

I'm not positive, but I expect it would make things difficult for a moment, maybe even overwhelm to IR for a moment (probalby not though and even if it did, they'd still be able to relocate you after the flair went out).

Not at all true. IR defeats dense woods and it's difficult for officers on foot and in cars to keep track of a suspect in an urban foot chase (too many places to hide, very dangerous). On the other hand it is very, very easy for the ghetto-bird to flip on the IR and follow the guy, directing the ground units to move in slowely and safely until they can grab the guy with overwhelming numbers. In fact, the helicopter is probably more useful in foot chases than in car chases.

If you're smart you'll pull over and just assume the position on the ground prone and wait for arrest. Anything else is likely to result in significan discomfort on your part.

How high? 500-1000ft. By FAA regulations, unless coming in for a landing, they have to fly at least 500ft above man made objects and 1000ft above man made objects in populated areas. Their are exceptions to this for police business and emergency medical personnel, but those exceptions are only rarely employed.

Running out of fuel? Most of those helicopters can get 400 miles on a tank of gas at least. They refuel when approaching a half-tank of gas and car chases almost never last for that many miles. If they were in danger of running out of fuel necessary to continue the chase, they could make arrangements for another helicopter to pickup pursuit.

Entering restricted airspace...works sort of. Yes, the helicopter has to break off or obtain special permission and clearance to continue pursuit (which it won't get unless it was chasing someone like Osama Bin Laden), but mostly it's unnecessary. State and County officials keep offices near airports and heliports so there will be sufficient ground coverage to stop and apprehend any criminals making a run for the airport.

Other ways to reliably lose a helicopter? Honestly, it's just friggin hard. Parking garages are the best way...if you can leave behind the car you are using. Otherwise, you can basically forget about it. Your best odds come from areas of forest with a thick overhead, very thick fog if weather permits and areas with a lot of coverage from high line wires.

If the suspects split up...well, multiple car chases are rare. And early into a car chase the police will usually designate a threat rating to vehicles. Ultimately the lead car is usually the one that is followed by the helicopter though. The police cars are going to be closer to the rear car and better able to pursue it. The helicopter sticks with the lead car because it's harder for ground pursuit to catch and because it generally has whoever is in charge of the crime in it.

Most important to the "plan" though, is the old military axiom, no plan survives contact with the enemy. Police helicopter pilots are usually very skilled and excellent at adapting to a dangerous, changing situation.

Cedric

Today yes. But in the SR universe no. Aircraft and Boats/Ships have a pathetic range in comparison to today. The Wasp/Yellowjacket are particularly bad having a total range of 62.5km(appx 38 miles).

Standard altitude is probably around 400 to 500 feet (by my visual estimation), certainly not as high as 1000.

The sometimes they fly a hell of a lot lower then that while looking for suspects, especially in areas with a lot of low, but dense building (like low-rent apartment complexes). I've seen them circle maybe 20 or 30 feet above the tops of three-story buildings, but that was only once (incidently, the time I saw that we weren't really looking for anyone important, just a shoplifter or something really minor, so I really doubt they obtained any kind of special permission- of course that's not to say they weren't breaking the rule, 'cause I don't know the rules).

Usually (in areas of residential single-family homes) they circle just barely low enough to make out the landing skids clearly.

Of course if they're looking over a larger area, they'll circle higher up. And naturally operations change significantly when they're working in the downtown area with skyscrapers or areas with other tall buildings.

One night I watched them take the chopper into a narrow gulch and actually disappear below the ground (which was flat except for the gulch). I think they were training since I was on duty and didn't hear anything on the radio, and since they kept lowering the bird into the gulch, then lifting out, but not really circling.

By way of comparison, the so-called "perfect storm" of 1991 had sustained wave heights of 11 metres (36 feet). That's higher than a three storey building - and some of the waves would have been much higher. IIRC the highest wave ever recorded was not during a storm but as a result of glacier calving - it hit 38 metres (125 feet) but was confined to the bay.

It's easy not to notic a helipocter flying at 500 feet. Heck one passed over head of me while I was driving on the Highway the other day and the only reason I noticed is I saw the shadow as it passed overhead. It was early in the day and not much traffic, so I looked around and spotted it. It was prettly low (I could clearly make out the State Police markings on the bottem and such).

DPD's bird is fairly noisy. If you're standing on the sidewalk and it's circling, you are going to know it's there. But then Denver is too cheap to go in for any fancy systems that might make the bird quiet.

On the other hand, if you're in a car and they're trying not to be noticed, I think it would be pretty easy for them to stay hidden. Fly at an angle that can't be seen from the windows, and high enough that the rotor noise won't be heard over the noise of the car engine and use the IR or the zoom lense for tracking. It would be very easy.

Incidently, I tend to agree with Hot Wheels that SR police choppers would probably be armed, to at least some degree. Also, they would probably have better systems than the DPD does. While we're talking SR, don't forget the spotter drones, some of which are built for stealth.

For that matter, one could probably have the helicopter be a drone-carrier -- have a co-pilot who rigs a trio of airborne security drones dispatched from a drone rack, and work it collaboratively to corner and nail a runner's vehicle.