Volunteer Flying Organizations: Law Enforcements Untapped Resource

Abstract

Given the fiscal constraints of todays law enforcement environment, many local police and sheriff agencies are unable to fully implement an aviation division due to the inherent costs to operate aircraft and pay professional law enforcement pilots. To cope with the extreme costs, some smaller police forces around the country have relied on the help of volunteer civilian pilots to augment law enforcement based aviation operations. This thesis uses recommendations of the Public Safety Aviation Accreditation Commission (PSAAC) to provide a foundational understanding on the critical aspects of running a law enforcement aviation division. By using PSAAC as the foundation, this thesis compares the aviation divisions of the following agencies: California Highway Patrol (CHP), Monterey County Aero Squadron (MCAS), and Lane County Sheriffs Office (LCSO). Comparing the all-volunteer divisions of MCAS and LCSO to the professional force of CHP yielded a list of best practices for the law enforcement aviation community.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 01, 2016
Accession Number
AD1031027

Entities

People

  • Christoper R. Laird

Organizations

  • Naval Postgraduate School

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Biomedical
  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Airframes
  • Best Practices
  • California
  • Employment
  • Fixed Wing Aircraft
  • Flight Training
  • Homeland Defense
  • Homeland Security
  • Law Enforcement
  • Law Enforcement Officers
  • National Security
  • Organizational Structure
  • Personnel Management
  • Second World War
  • Surveillance
  • United States

Readers

  • Aviation Science / Aeronautics.
  • Geospatial Intelligence and Artificial Intelligence Analytics
  • Government and Public Administration Law.