The Los Angeles Police Department has added equipment and will begin recording helicopter footage of large-scale events as soon as Tuesday, Oct. 3 – just in time for Election Day and its aftermath when protests and political unrest could again break out.
“It’s going to be available starting (Tuesday),” LAPD Assistant Chief Horace Frank said of a pair of recording devices that can capture and store live feeds from some of the department’s helicopters. “We’re testing it now.”
In a letter to the Los Angeles Police Commission, LAPD commanders said the department needed the equipment so it could for the first time record its helicopters’ live feeds and preserve the footage.
The recording equipment, including two massive hard drives to store the footage, was valued at $2,150 and provided to the department by the Los Angeles Police Foundation, a nonprofit that over the years has gifted LAPD with millions of dollars in new technology.
The Los Angeles Police Department has added equipment and will begin recording helicopter footage of large-scale events as soon as Tuesday, Oct. 3 – just in time for Election Day and its aftermath when protests and political unrest could again break out.
“It’s going to be available starting (Tuesday),” LAPD Assistant Chief Horace Frank said of a pair of recording devices that can capture and store live feeds from some of the department’s helicopters. “We’re testing it now.”
In a letter to the Los Angeles Police Commission, LAPD commanders said the department needed the equipment so it could for the first time record its helicopters’ live feeds and preserve the footage.
The recording equipment, including two massive hard drives to store the footage, was valued at $2,150 and provided to the department by the Los Angeles Police Foundation, a nonprofit that over the years has gifted LAPD with millions of dollars in new technology.
The Police Commission signed off on the donation in a unanimous Oct. 27 vote. In that meeting, Deputy Chief Peter Zarcone told commissioners some in LAPD’s helicopter fleet are equipped with cameras that send live feeds back to department computers so commanders on the ground can look at what’s happening.
He said with the donation, 10 LAPD helicopters – more than half of its fleet – could be outfitted with the ability to record footage.
The helicopter live feeds were used in “the recent riots or a Dodger or Laker celebration, or what have you,” Zarcone said.
“So when I hear them two or three times a day going above,” Commissioner Dale Bonner asked about LAPD’s helicopters that regularly buzz around the city, “how do I know that somebody’s not just sending images of my yard, not just capturing images?”
Zarcone said the helicopters do not turn on their live feeds for regular patrols. During an event when a helicopter with a live camera is requested, officials can only start recording when signed off by a captain supervising the response.