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LAPD helicopter tracker with real-time operating costs

(lapdhelicoptertracker.com)
100 points polalavik | 1 comments | 21 Nov 25 22:11 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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BadBadJellyBean ◴[21 Nov 25 22:48 UTC] No.46009959[source]▶
I find it interesting that the question is "why don't they use drones". My question is: why so much air surveillance? I live in Germany. The only times I hear a helicopter is if someone is being rescued or if someones missing. I rarely see them at all.
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1. h14h ◴[21 Nov 25 23:38 UTC] No.46010416[source]▶
I suspect it has something to do with LA's large footprint. Comparing to where I'm from in Chicago, LA county is over 4x the land area with less than 2x the population:

https://www.comparea.org/r122576+r396479

Don't know how the math works out exactly, but if they don't have the workforce to cover their patrol area with squad cars, there's probably an argument to be made for covering gaps with areal support. Given that Chicago struggles with workforce shortages, I can only imagine how much worse it'd be if you had to cover 4x the area with half the tax base.