7 ms·

Nice to see the Bay Area police doing something though a helicopter seems an expensive way to get a stolen car back.

willcipriano 4y ago
The costs of automobile theft going unpunshied in society is probably much greater than the cost of a helicopter at these population scales. For a low income person a car going stolen could set in motion a very costly chain of events. It can be incredibly disruptive.
- deepsun 4y ago
  Yet I know cases when police returns a stolen car to it's owner, and never bothers to look for a thief, even though the car is left with a lot of junk (papers, receipts, personal items) that could lead to the thief easily. And the cars are usually just found randomly, not really looked for.
JimtheCoder 4y ago
"a helicopter seems an expensive way to get a stolen car back." I am not sure, but I think that the chopper time may be diverted from other usage, not added on. Eg. Chopper flies 400 hours per year total. Instead of 400 used going around in circles doing nothing, 350 hours are spent going around in circles doing nothing and 50 hours are spent assisting in stolen car related operations. I could be wrong, though...
- dkn775 4y ago
  Helicopter usually in the air already it just respnds To the call like a cop radio
- jacquesm 4y ago
  Police choppers here fly ~ 2000 hours annually, I don't think that having them for 400 hours per year is going to be worth the price of buying them in the first place.
  - JimtheCoder 4y ago
    I was just using 400 as an example...I have no actual idea of how many hours police helicopters fly. Well, I do now...
- LorenPechtel 4y ago
  No. Police chopper bore holes in the sky because they're not needed 100% of the time but if they weren't already in the sky the response would be too slow. To the extent that they can remain in the general area they're supposed to sending them to look at less important things on the ground is actually a positive because it's less boredom for the pilots. Something hot comes up and they'll dash away from that stolen car.

The costs of automobile theft going unpunshied in society is probably much greater than the cost of a helicopter at these population scales. For a low income person a car going stolen could set in motion a very costly chain of events. It can be incredibly disruptive.

deepsun 4y ago
Yet I know cases when police returns a stolen car to it's owner, and never bothers to look for a thief, even though the car is left with a lot of junk (papers, receipts, personal items) that could lead to the thief easily. And the cars are usually just found randomly, not really looked for.

JimtheCoder 4y ago

"a helicopter seems an expensive way to get a stolen car back." I am not sure, but I think that the chopper time may be diverted from other usage, not added on. Eg. Chopper flies 400 hours per year total. Instead of 400 used going around in circles doing nothing, 350 hours are spent going around in circles doing nothing and 50 hours are spent assisting in stolen car related operations. I could be wrong, though...

dkn775 4y ago
Helicopter usually in the air already it just respnds To the call like a cop radio
jacquesm 4y ago
Police choppers here fly ~ 2000 hours annually, I don't think that having them for 400 hours per year is going to be worth the price of buying them in the first place.
- JimtheCoder 4y ago
  I was just using 400 as an example...I have no actual idea of how many hours police helicopters fly. Well, I do now...
LorenPechtel 4y ago
No. Police chopper bore holes in the sky because they're not needed 100% of the time but if they weren't already in the sky the response would be too slow. To the extent that they can remain in the general area they're supposed to sending them to look at less important things on the ground is actually a positive because it's less boredom for the pilots. Something hot comes up and they'll dash away from that stolen car.