Audit says LAPD helicopters spend little time on serious crimes

By Libor JanyStaff Writer

Dec. 13, 2023 3 AM PT

A city audit has found that Los Angeles Police Department helicopters spend less than half of their flight time responding to “high priority” crimes, with the rest used for patrolling, responding to lower-level 911 calls, performing ceremonial flybys and ferrying around VIPs.

The review, touted as the first of its kind by Los Angeles City Controller Kenneth Mejia’s office, was based on a months-long evaluation of the LAPD’s helicopter operations. The data available were limited, the report said, and without more information, it’s difficult to determine “whether the LAPD has justified the need for the program’s current size and scope.”

The department maintains that helicopters are an important crime-fighting tool. Chief Michel Moore on Tuesday told the Police Commission that the LAPD would provide its own “comprehensive written report” in the coming months.

In a statement after the audit’s release, Moore said operations by the Air Support Division help “to detect and prevent crimes including residential burglaries while also responding to officer’s assistance calls involving violent and highly dangerous situations.”

Dinah M. Manning, director of public safety in the controller’s office, said at a Monday news conference that the findings raise questions about the justification for spending roughly $50 million a year on police helicopters — more than the annual budgets of at least 14 city agencies, including the Civil and Human Rights and Equity Department and the city clerk’s office.

“We hope that this isn’t another report that goes into the filing cabinet,” Manning said.

Manning, who described herself as a native Angeleno, said the whirring of a helicopter’s rotors overhead is an inescapable part of the city’s soundtrack. Like many who grew up here, she never questioned whether the aircraft were necessary.

“I went to sleep with helicopters, I woke up to helicopters, helicopters were a part of my daily experience,” Manning said.

The audit, which relied on flight data from the 2018-22 fiscal years, also found that the department spent a disproportionate amount of time flying over certain lower-income neighborhoods — regardless of their crime rates.

Nearly 9% of flights — more than 13,000 in total — were over the 77th Street division in South L.A, which in 2022 accounted for 6.4% of what the LAPD classifies as “Part 1 Incidents,” ranging from violent felonies to property crimes, according to the audit’s analysis of LAPD crime and flight data.

Southwest division and Hollenbeck, which covers much of East L.A., also were subject to more helicopter activity than other parts of the city, contributing to some residents viewing the department as an occupying force, the audit’s authors said.

By contrast, the affluent neighborhoods of Pacific division accounted for 6.1% percent of “Part 1 Incidents” but only 3.3% of the LAPD’s “helicopter engagements,” the audit found.

Beyond the disruptive noise, helicopters circling overhead can mean serious health consequences for residents, including poor sleep and anxiety. Manning said the controller’s office planned to release a heat-map tool that would allow users to look up the costs and pollution associated with helicopters flying over their neighborhoods.

The study said there was no conclusive evidence to show that helicopters help reduce crime and noted that “the LAPD has not done the work to collect necessary data to test such claims.”

Mejia’s office released a series of recommendations aimed at better oversight and data collection but stopped short of calling for the department to pull back on the size of its fleet, as some progressive groups have sought.

At the Police Commission meeting, Moore said the department was still examining the audit’s findings, but he was “disappointed by the characterizations” made by the city controller’s office.

A member of the Beverly Hills Police Honor Guard watches as a L.A P.D. helicopter does a flyover

Mejia’s office said the LAPD “was not a good-faith partner” at various points during the study, which Moore disputed.

“I found the remarks unprofessional and counterproductive,” he said.

Larry Hanna — an attorney for the Police Protective League, the union that represents the LAPD’s rank-and-file — called in during the public comment period to say that the helicopters are “one of the best tools that the officers have.”

“This report is good for one thing and one thing only, and that’s to line the bottom of bird cages,” Hanna said.

The audit said 61% of flight time by LAPD helicopters is spent on “non-high priority incidents,” which it defined as cases that do not involve serious crimes such as felonies and other situations “that create an urgent risk to life or property.” About half of that time is spent patrolling at pilots’ discretion, awaiting calls for emergency response. The report said the LAPD has a fleet of 17 helicopters, and typically there are two flying for 20 hours every day, at a cost of roughly $2,916 per hour.

Police officials have long argued that helicopters are an effective force multiplier that allows them to traverse the vast city in a matter of minutes. At a community meeting this year, officials said that a helicopter cruising at regular speeds can cover the roughly 50 miles from the Santa Susana Pass to the Harbor Area in 15 to 20 minutes.

Helicopters also allow law enforcement to track suspects from a safe distance, such as during a high-speed pursuit. Some of the units are equipped with a camera system that can pick up the heat signatures of suspects hiding below.

According to the LAPD, helicopters are deployed in a variety of support roles, including transporting supplies and serving as a commander’s eyes in the sky during special events. Moore has also said helicopters could assist with search-and-rescue missions duringa large-scale natural disaster such as an earthquake.

The Air Support Division bills itself as the world’s largest municipal airborne law enforcement operation. The audit found that the LAPD logged more than three times as many flight hours daily as police in Houston, which had the highest rate of violent crime and the largest geographical size of five cities surveyed.

The LAPD flights added up to 761,600 gallons of fuel per year, with a corresponding environmental impact of 7,427 metric tons of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere — the equivalent of 19 million miles driven by a standard car, the audit said.

The helicopters have been flown for community functions, air shows and to promote the LAPD or raise money for police-related causes. The program came under scrutiny in 2014 after one of its choppers dropped golf balls over the La Cañada Flintridge Country Club’s golf course as part of a PTA fundraiser. The helicopter’s appearance was arranged by an LAPD sergeant whose children attended a nearby school. The incident was later investigated internally.

The audit calls for the department to establish formal performance metrics on helicopter usage that will be reported regularly to the Police Commission, revamp its data collection system and create clear policies for the “planning and authorization of directed patrols, flybys and administrative flights.”

A Los Angeles Police helicopter flies over downtown Los Angeles

Critics of the helicopter program had a mixed response to the report.

UCLA biology professor Nicholas Shapiro, who for months has been studying the helicopters’ environmental impact, said he found the cost analysis “helpful” but had hoped for more data and analysis on “how racialized inequities are happening.”

Matyos Kidane, an organizer with Stop LAPD Spying Coalition, said he was disappointed “to hear such tepid recommendations” from the controller — who, he said, “ran on being a progressive and ran on being critical of the police.”

Kidane said the LAPD knows how to “weaponize recommendations and audits to try to legitimize an aerial fleet.” He fears that even though the audit was critical of the LAPD, it will be used to further justify the department’s use of technology for widespread surveillance.

Sergio Perez, who serves as the controller’s chief of accountability and oversight, said the audit shows a need to examine some long-held beliefs, such as whether helicopters are necessary to police a sprawling city like L.A.

“That kind of fuzzy, commonsense assumption is not enough,” he said.

Times staff writer David Zahniser contributed to this report.