A brief history: 100 years of aerial police in NYC

The skies above New York City’s boroughs have been patrolled by aerial police units of various sizes and forms for over 100 years. In fact, the first police ‘reserve’ units were stationed in helicopters above Manhattan as early as 1918. In the century since then, the nature and scale of the NYPD’s aerial assets have, naturally, evolved drastically and paved the way for Australia’s own early aerial police units decades later.