[JimtheCoder]

"a helicopter seems an expensive way to get a stolen car back."

I am not sure, but I think that the chopper time may be diverted from other usage, not added on.

Eg. Chopper flies 400 hours per year total. Instead of 400 used going around in circles doing nothing, 350 hours are spent going around in circles doing nothing and 50 hours are spent assisting in stolen car related operations.

I could be wrong, though...

[LorenPechtel]

No. Police chopper bore holes in the sky because they're not needed 100% of the time but if they weren't already in the sky the response would be too slow. To the extent that they can remain in the general area they're supposed to sending them to look at less important things on the ground is actually a positive because it's less boredom for the pilots. Something hot comes up and they'll dash away from that stolen car.

[jacquesm]

Police choppers here fly ~ 2000 hours annually, I don't think that having them for 400 hours per year is going to be worth the price of buying them in the first place.

[JimtheCoder]

I was just using 400 as an example...I have no actual idea of how many hours police helicopters fly. Well, I do now...

[dkn775]

Helicopter usually in the air already it just respnds To the call like a cop radio