Party Vibe

TVP always do that even for the legal events… any large gathering of people in this country is watched as cops automatically assume it may kick off – if you go to Womad or Reading festival the helicopter flies over every day…

I expect similar things happen in other force areas.

I’ve seen house parties in TVP area overflown by the helicopter when there is a large proportion of free party people there.

Also, any car which is seen regularly at free parties is put on the ANPR list (so when it passes CCTV cameras cops are alerted) and its movements monitored by traffic cops who have instant access to the helicopter via the Airwave radio system.

in recent years many police forces are getting fixed mileage deals on their aircraft (such a deal is already commonplace for motor cars and vans in both public and private sector)

they sign a contract to provide the aircraft, maintenance and fuel for so many years; during the term the cops can fly it as much as they want without the Police Authority incurring any extra spend other than the monthly contract instalment payment.

so its not costing the public any extra in cash terms – but probably not doing the environment a lot of good (I expect more impact overall than the contamination caused by raves!)

incidentally Surrey Police even used “dealing with raves” to justify buying their own helicopter (before they were sharing two with the Met!)

unfortunately when you start reading stuff like minutes of local council meetings you get the impression that middle englanders actually see this as “money well spent” in “combatting anti-social behaviour”.

When did you last see anyone (other than on boards like this!) calling for less enforcement against raves or even clubs?

Even if two or three cars or people in them are found to be wanted for some reason its seen as a “result” by the cops.

Its not just raves either; I notice the police helicopter round here (Suffolk) is in the air every day; it is clearly being deployed “pre-emptively” to simply keep an eye on what is going on from a high vantage point rather than to any particular incident.

Incidentally I reckon deploying the helicopter must wake up more people than the rigs and convoys; they try and minimise the noise by the enclosed tail rotor design used in the most common civillian emergency services helicopter (Eurocopter EC135) but it just sounds like a flying extractor fan.