Fresno, Calif., Police Investing $6.9M in New Helicopter

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(TNS) — The Fresno Police Department is getting a new helicopter for its Skywatch unit sometime next year, replacing one of two aging Eurocopter EC120 choppers that are nearing the end of their useful service life.

The Fresno City Council last week approved a $4.7 million, 10-year lease-purchase deal with Airbus Helicopters Inc.to buy a brand-new H125 jet turbine helicopter – the same model used by the California Highway Patrol , Los Angeles Police Department and Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

Under a separate 10-year, $2.2 million contract, the city is purchasing an array of police equipment for the new helicopter from Hangar One Inc. Those accessories will include an equipment turret with a forward-looking infrared camera system, a laser rangefinder, an automatic video tracker, and other technology. The helicopter will also come equipped with a “moving map” navigation system, radios and antennas, a weather data receiver, multiple high-definition cameras, loudspeaker and siren, and other gear.

Buying the base-model helicopter from Airbus and the police accessories through Hanger One will save the city more than $860,000 compared to buying a fully police-equipped helicopter through Airbus, according to a staff memo to the Fresno City Council.

In a presentation Thursday to the City Council , Police Chief Mindy Casto said helicopters are a valuable asset to the department and are frequently the first police presence to arrive at the scene of a call.

So far in 2024, the helicopters have flown a total about 1,200 flight hours and responded to 2,400 different calls, Casto said. “The average response time for the helicopter to get over anywhere in the city is 61 seconds this year. It was 54 seconds last year and it was 50 seconds in 2022.”

But the age of the helicopters is becoming an increasing concern for the department because of rising maintenance costs. “The problem with these helicopters that we have … is that they are no longer in production and the parts are getting harder and harder to come by, and so the cost will continue to go up,” Casto said.

The oldest of the EC120s is 21 years old, and will be due for a major service overhaul in 2027. Its first 12-year inspection and overhaul in 2015 cost about $300,000 in repairs. Casto estimated that the next service inspection would likely cost more than $350,000, “and that’s notwithstanding any mechanical issues that are found.”

Although Eurocopter was rebranded as Airbus Helicopters in 2014, the company stopped producing the older model in 2017.

The staff memo to the City Council indicated that the department could take delivery of the new helicopter in the spring of 2025. The Airbus purchase agreement calls for delivery in the third quarter of 2025.

By the numbers

In 2024, the Skywatch helicopters have racked up the following statistics, according to Casto:

Response to calls – More than 2,400 so far in 2024, compared to 3,619 for the entirety of 2023.
Average response time – 61 seconds in 20224, compared to 54 seconds in 2023 and 50 seconds in 2022.
First on scene – 1,476 incidents so far in 2024, compared to 2,279 in 2023.
Arrest assists – 158 felony arrests and 72 misdemeanor arrests so far in 2024, compared to 260 felony arrests and 85 misdemeanor arrests in 2023.
Pursuit support – 45 vehicle pursuits and 86 foot pursuits so far in 2024, compared to 74 vehicle pursuits and 124 foot pursuits in 2023.

The older EC120 helicopter has a reported “fast cruise” speed of 120 knots or 138 mph, a maximum range of 440 miles and a maximum endurance, or flight time, of three hours. The Fresno City Council approved the purchase of the city’s first EC120 in 2002 at a cost of $1.3 million, including the special police gear. The city purchased the second EC120 in 2004 for about the same price.

By comparison, the new H125 has a fast cruise speed of 133 knots or 153 mph, a maximum range of 385 miles and a maximum endurance of 4 hours and 20 minutes. Between the base price and the police gear, the cost for one helicopter will be just over $6.9 million. That’s about five times the original cost of one of the EC120s.

The city is including a down payment of $1.3 million in its 2024-25 budget, with additional $600,000 annual payments to follow starting in 2026.

Part of the down payment is coming from the city’s General Fund, as well as the city’s Asset Forfeiture fund – money seized as the proceeds of criminal activity.

City Manager Georgeanne White said that while the city has already built the lease payments into its plans for the next five years, the specific source of the line items within the General Fund from which the money will come has not yet been determined.

City Councilmember Miguel Arias said he hopes that the money will come from within the police department’s own allocations rather than from other city departments.

“I recognize it’s necessary equipment, but in the last few years we have replaced just about every single piece of equipment within the police department’s inventory list,” Arias said. “If this is one more thing that’s necessary, I think what we’ve been told by (Mayor Jerry Dyer’s ) administration is, tough budget times are coming, they’ve arrived, and everybody’s been asked to live within their budget.”

“So I don’t want to see us taking the $600,000 (lease payments) for this brand new helicopter and take it away from other departments or from parks or some other General Fund department,” Arias said.