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Pilot / Helicopter

If you see or hear the police helicopter in your area, please feel reassured.

The helicopter plays a vital role in protecting you and your community, making Thames Valley safer by protecting life and property, detecting and preventing crime, and reducing disorder. It is always deployed for important operational reasons – day or night.

This section will be regularly updated with brief and basic details of any notable flights that the Air Support Unit has flown. So, if you are disturbed or concerned by the helicopter, this section will hopefully help you to understand why.

Please note:

  • Details will be updated as soon as possible on the next working day – sometimes updates may not be available due to operational demands.
  • No confidential information is released on this page.
  • Any incidents that are newsworthy will be released via the relevant police force Press Office in the usual way.

The helicopter and its crew perform many important tasks, providing essential support to police officers on the ground and the other emergency services. This includes:

Locating missing people
The helicopter is often involved in searching for people who are missing, vulnerable or in jeopardy. It is able to cover a large area, helping to assist units on the ground. The helicopter’s thermal image camera is a valuable tool that can be used to locate people very quickly by their body heat which in some circumstances means the difference between life and death.

Operational follows
Whenever a vehicle fails to stop for police, the helicopter is requested to attend in order to minimise any risk to members of the public and police officers. The aircraft’s crew will give a full commentary on the incident and progress of the vehicle so that experienced Roads Policing officers can intercept the vehicle and bring the pursuit to a safe conclusion. The video footage taken from the helicopter forms part of the evidence used to bring offenders to justice.

Tracking suspects
Whether it is searching for a robbery suspect, burglar, car thief or other villain, the helicopter can search large areas quickly and direct ground resources accordingly. This can be especially useful in large rural areas where a systematic ground search would be impossible. If an offender is located either visually or by thermal image camera, ground resources will usually be directed to apprehend, although in some cases the helicopter will land and deploy the crew to arrest directly if circumstances warrant it.

Photographic tasks
The aircraft carries stills cameras allowing the crew to take pictures, both pre and post incident, which can provide valuable information for tactical operations, planning and subsequent investigations.

Casevacs
‘Casevac’ is the abbreviated term used for when the helicopter is used to transfer people to hospital by air in life threatening circumstances (casualty evacuation). The use of the police helicopter in this role has saved many lives over several decades.