A brief history: 100 years of aerial police in NYC

World War I was the first major battle to utilise aviation en masse, which evidently made this time period a massive catalyst for advancement. In the United States, security concerns on home soil sparked increasing support for aerial assets. After a small series of explosions, including the 1916 Black Tom explosion – in which German spies blew up a depot holding munition for the Allied Forces in New York Harbour – the New York Police Department called upon civilian pilots to fly above the site and survey damage and provide intel.

In 1918, the NYPD was ready to make its understanding of the importance of aviation in policing more permanent. In March 1918, the newly-instated New York City Police Commissioner, Richard Enright, issued an order for the department to take “immediate steps” to secure an aviation division among the Police Reserves, and by the end of that year, had established the world’s first Aviation Section within the police department.

The first official NYPD Aviation Section flight took place on April 30, 1919, when two Curtiss bi-planes departed the Sheepshead Bay Race Track – as the city was yet to see the opening of a commercial airport – en route to Philadelphia. The flight took place under the watchful eye of the unit’s first Chief, Colonel Jedderson De Mont Thompson. “New York City has the first aerial police squadron of any city in the world,” Thompson said after the historic flight. “Eventually, there will be established a regular aerial squad…for other large cities as well.” 

Many of the NYPD’s early pilots were ex-military aviators, many of whom also made their way into the now-booming commercial aviation market. Thompson noted that around 5,000 aviators returned to the US after the War. “The majority of these men do not intend to give up flying,” he said. “They will enter the work commercially, for pleasure, or will become members of the coming police force of the sky.” The original Aviation Section of the NYPD boasted seven planes of its own, in addition to the aircraft owned privately by policemen or reservists who had volunteered to support the squad in times of need. 

Between 1920 and 1935, very few resources were provided to the Aviation Section and its small fleet was ultimately grounded due to age and condition. The NYPD Aviation unit was formally re-established by then-Mayor of New York Fiorello La Guardia in 1939, when New York City’s population was around 7 million. As a small aside, Mayor La Guardia had also pushed for the development of a new commercial airport in New York City to compete with Floyd Bennett Field and Newark Airport – both of which he considered too far from Manhattan to appropriately service the city. The new airport was later named after the then-Mayor, though the NYPD Aviation Unit continues to operate from the Brooklyn-based Floyd Bennet Field. Thus in 1939, the NYPD purchased two new Stinson SR-10K Reliant aircraft – one amphibian and one landplane – both powered by 450-horsepower Wright engines, and appointed 12 police personnel with aviation experience to the new unit, including six pilots and six engineers.

Both new planes were equipped with two-way police radios to communicate with the ground and had the capacity for “immediate conversion to ambulance uses in emergencies”, according to New York Times article from July 1939. With its new aerial capabilities, the NYPD would be able to “protect life and property, enforce aircraft regulations over the city, patrol the harbour, and furnish aerial photographs of city areas under location investigation”, according to the Times. “The planes are also expected to be a great help to the Traffic Division in spotting and breaking up congested vehicular traffic”. 

From then, the size and shape of the aviation unit remained largely unchanged until the end of WWII, when the NYPD took ownership of a number of ex-military aircraft. By 1950, the unit expanded to include six aircraft, including a Grumman G-21 Goose monoplane, a Grumman G-44 Widgeon twin-engine plane and its very first Bell 47 helicopter. The unit also then had 10 pilots and seven mechanics. 

Within a decade of the end of WWII, the Department had recognised the superior manoeuvrability of helicopters and began to phase out its fixed-wing fleet. To this day, the NYPD has manned its fleet almost exclusively with helicopters, including the Bell 206, Bell 412, Bell 407 and AugustaWelland AW119, along with one surveillance and counter-terrorism fixed-wing aircraft – a Cessna 208 Caravan.

Paving the way for PolAIR

Like New York, Australia had a few ‘false starts’ as it were in its attempt to take policing to the skies. In New South Wales, an Aviation Branch of the NSW Police Force was established in 1946 after the Force took delivery of an ex-Royal Australian Air Force Avro Anson. However, the aircraft was removed from service in 1950 and was not replaced. Further north, in Queensland, a Camooweal-based police officer began flying his personal de Havilland Tiger Moth to assist the police force in 1956.

By 1950, while New York City had a thriving aerial policing unit, Australia was still 25 years away from seeing the establishment of its first official and successful aviation police section. This is understandable given that, at that time, the whole country of Australia had the same population as New York City alone. However, the country’s population grew swiftly in the latter half of the 20th century. This, coupled with Australia’s challenging and vast geography, and a boom in commercial aviation through the 1960s and 70s, allowed Australia to finally take advantage of the opportunities in aerial policing.

Australia would see its very first aerial police squad, the Victoria Police Air Wing, established in Melbourne in 1975. At the time, the Air Wing utilised a small fleet of leased fixed-wing aircraft, including the light-twin piston-engined Aero Commander 500 and Piper PA-31 Navajo. Within the year, the Air Wing had undertaken a six-week trial to evaluate the introduction of regular helicopter patrols, temporarily leasing a Hughes 500D light rotorcraft. The trial was a raging success, and the force moved swiftly to purchase a brand new twin-engine Aerospatiale AS-365C1 Dauphin 2, registration VH-PVF, in 1978 – the first aircraft of its kind in Australia. 

At the time, the Victoria Police Air Wing acknowledged numerous benefits of aerial capabilities, including observation and tracking, crime detection, investigation and prevention, quick deployment of officers and supplies, emergency search and rescue missions, and aeromedical support. One year after the country’s first Australian-owned-and-operated police helicopter was purchased, New South Wales re-established its Aviation Command, dubbed PolAir. Taking inspiration from Victoria and the NYPD, the NSW PolAir fleet began with the purchase of a Bell 206B-3 Jet Ranger helicopter, which was soon expanded to a fleet of three Rangers. These helicopters were given the designation PolAir 1, 2 and 3. Queensland also established its own official Air Wing in 1975 with the purchase of two fixed-wing Cessna 180E aircraft. Four police officers with pilot qualifications were initially assigned to the Air Wing. A year later, Western Australia founded its Police Air Wing after leasing a Piper PA-22 Tri-Pacer, while the Northern Territory founded its police aviation unit in 1979. Due to the vastness of the NT, this Police Air Wing is the only Australian aerial police unit to only operate fixed-wing aircraft.

Looking ahead

In the many decades since the launch of aerial police capabilities on both sides of the Pacific, the utilisation of aerial police assets has improved astronomically. The next generation of aerial police aircraft, including the Bell 429 twin-engine helicopter in Australia and NYC’s incoming Subaru Bell 412EPX, are faster, more powerful, and more capable than their predecessors. Today’s aircraft are capable of handling rescue winches for search and rescue missions, high-definition video cameras and recording systems, PA systems, beam searchlights, digital radio systems and GPS navigation systems. 

Modern engines, avionics, and maintenance systems also allow for high utilisation rates across PolAir fleets. In 2022 alone, NSW PolAir revealed it had conducted 459 search and rescue operations, responded to 138 pursuits, and located 232 missing people with its fleet of eight PolAir aircraft. Police Transport and Public Safety Commander, Assistant Commissioner Karen Webb APM, said the state’s aerial capability has gone from “strength to strength” in the last 50 years, developing in line with new aviation technology. “We are fortunate here in New South Wales that our Aviation Command has been fitted with advanced technology to help our officers respond to, target, disrupt and prevent crime,” Assistant Commissioner Webb said. 

While Australia may have lagged behind the Big Apple in the initial development of a police aviation unit, there is one arena where Down Under is leading the charge – drones. In fact, while New York City only utilises around 14 drones – for use in special circumstances, including special events – Australia boasts a national fleet in the triple digits, with drone technologies adopted by every state and territory police department.

In 2022, the Queensland Police Service began training for officers in Townsville and Cairns to operate a number of new remote-piloted aerial systems (RPAS), acknowledging that drones offer a new frontier for aerial policing. According to Queensland’s POLAIR, RPAS provide enhanced intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities, as well as traffic management. They also include advancements like artificial intelligence technologies for tracking moving vehicles and sophisticated thermal imaging cameras for locating lost people. In 2021, Tasmania police were able to arrest an alleged murderer after locating him in remote bushland thanks to its drones and thermal imaging technologies. Tasmania Police said drones are now “vital” resources in solving and preventing crime, with their fleet deployed hundreds of times per year.