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100 points polalavik | 3 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source
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ripberge ◴[] No.46009808[source]
As someone who lives in central LA and has them circle my neighborhood frequently, actually shaking my house, I think this is awesome.

These needs should be filled by drones. Way less noisy, dangerous and expensive.

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1. kylehotchkiss ◴[] No.46009953[source]
Down in SD at least, the sheriff's office helicopters serve many purposes. They'll use them for firefighting, hike rescues (often! according to their IG), first responder to an aviation accident, loudly shouting garbled messages through their loudspeaker, etc.

There's just enough high-speed/timely crime here that I prefer they use these over drones. There's some extra legal protections built into helicopters that drones don't get, like prison time if some idiot points a laser pointer.

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2. VerifiedReports ◴[] No.46010019[source]
I seriously doubt that physically rescuing hikers or delivering first-responders to plane crashes represent a large percentage of LAPD helicopter missions. I live in a nice suburb and there's one of them circling over it probably weekly.

I don't see why large drones can't do most of what these helicopters are doing. They're using needlessly expensive helicopters, too.

3. asdff ◴[] No.46010044[source]
LAPD doesn't conduct rescue operations or anything like that. Different helicopters are used from different agencies.