Missing equipment keeps copter grounded
Safety director asking for council to OK funds
A new $3.4 million Columbus police helicopter has sat unused for more than a year because it did not come equipped with night vision and other needed technology, the city council was told Monday night.
Robert Clark, the city's newly appointed public safety director, said the new Bell 407GXI helicopter that the council approved buying in November 2019 has never been used since it was delivered to the police division over a year ago. The reason: it needs $671,000 in high-tech equipment, everything from spotlights to cameras to computer systems.
The new helicopter “is here, but it sits on the ground,” Clark said in asking the council to approve the expenditure for the equipment that would ready it for use by police. Funding would come from the police division's drug money seizure fund.
Police Cmdr. Robert Sagle, who oversees the helicopter unit, explained that normally the division would remove most of that type of equipment from the helicopter it was replacing and install it in the new one. But the city switched manufacturers with the new helicopter purchase, going with Bell instead of Mcdonnell Douglas, which built the division's four other MD530FS choppers that it has been flying since 1996.
That switch “made the equipment that we currently had obsolete for that
(Bell) helicopter,” Sagle said. “The equipment does not match the helicopter that we purchased.”
When the council approved spending the $3.4 million for a new police helicopter in November 2019, the measure passed unanimously.
But by late May 2020, the city began grappling with racial injustice protests, some rioting and some vocal citizen opposition to Columbus police’s large police helicopter program, including its high cost, noise and neighborhood intrusiveness. Among the complaints, some residents told council last year, were that the helicopters seem to hover over their neighborhoods for long stretches, giving the feeling of a war zone.
The new Bell helicopter is louder than the Mcdonnell Douglas helicopters, but Sagle said the division hopes to mitigate that by flying higher to keep ground noise down. That’s another reason that the division needs certain high-tech equipment, such as a new $473,000 thermal imaging, or “night vision” camera, the most-expensive item on the equipment list.
Sagle said the city will still save about 30% by fitting out the Bell helicopter after purchase than having all the equipment factory-installed.
The council vote on Monday didn’t go as smoothly as in 2019, but the council approved spending the money to equip the helicopter by a 5-2 vote. Two members who had voted to purchase the helicopter, Elizabeth Brown and Shayla Favor, voted against fitting it out.
After weeks of protests in May and June 2020 and citizen concerns that helicopters were part of the militarization of Columbus police, the council by a narrow 4-3 vote in September 2020 tabled an ordinance that would have put limits on a variety of police tactical equipment in Columbus, including a proposal to reduce the helicopter unit from six at that time to four.
“By purchasing this equipment tonight, we’re effectively adding a helicopter to the fleet,” increasing it to five choppers from the current four for the last year, Elizabeth Brown, council president pro tem, said Monday. She said that is why she opposed equipping the new helicopter.
But council member Rob Dorans said the council must balance citizen complaints with the need for the helicopter to help combat rising crime rates, noting that at 4 p.m. Monday as he was picking up his infant son from day care, four gunshots went off nearby. He supported reducing the fleet size last year, but also voted Monday for moving forward with getting the fifth helicopter equipped and running.
“I am pleased that Director Clarke and (Police) Chief Bryant have committed to Council they will work with us on that legislation,” which Dorans still supports, he said Tuesday in an email. “I think that is a better path forward to addressing this issue in a holistic way than one piece of procurement legislation.”
With two council members set to retire in January — Mitchell Brown, a former public safety director from 20002005, and Priscilla Tyson — it’s possible that a new council could revisit the issue of the tactical use of the helicopters.
Clark, a former FBI agent appointed city public safety director in September to replace Ned Pettus Jr., said Monday he is open to such discussions.
While committed to equipping officers with the very best technology, Clark said, “we are constantly and consistently talking about how we utilize technology, not in the manner in which we just saw in the last couple of years across this country,” but with new operating procedures that do not “repeat the mistakes of the past.” He added that he doesn’t want children to be scared something bad is happening nearby every time they hear a helicopter.
On another police matter, the council voted Monday to extend the Division of Police’s contract with Shotspotter Inc. for one year for $630,000. The Shotspotter gunshot detection system alerts officers of any gunshots over a total nine miles in targeted areas of the city.
Since entering into the contract in 2018, the city has spent more than $2.7 million deploying the technology, which the division claims allows it to respond faster to crime scenes and can reduce gunshots fired in a covered area by 80% and violent crime by 40%.
In other business Monday, the council voted to reject as insufficient the latest bid by Proenergy Ohio to place a $107 million voter initiative on a future ballot that would fund “green energy” programs at the group’s discretion. The measure is similar to Issue 7, the controversial proposal which Columbus voters shot down by historic proportions in the Nov. 2 general election. Mayor Andrew J. Ginther has called the attempts by the secretive group to siphon off city funds a scam that lacks any proper public oversight, and he and other city officials and civic leaders plan to push for a new city charter change to stop such potential profiteering measures in the future.
The Franklin County Board of Elections recently determined that Proenergy fell short of the number of valid signatures needed on its latest petition to go before voters for an Issue 7 do-over. wbush@gannett.com @Reporterbush