[Atotalnoob]

Large cities usually have helicopters in the sky 24/7. It’s better (meaning get overhead faster) than trying to scramble when actually needed.

The helicopter will go and respond to random calls if it’s not needed for anything in particular.

Not defending the practice, just explaining why a helicopter might respond to something that’s overkill

[ricardobeat]

Don’t helicopters cost insane hourly amounts to operate?

[__MatrixMan__]

Yes but the thing about keeping the little people in their place is that there's always plenty of money to spend on it.

[Atotalnoob]

If I’m not mistaken, yes. I believe the flight cost is 300-5k+

Fixed wing planes like Cessna 172s are in the ballpark of 100/hr.

[TigeriusKirk]

I'm not sure even Los Angeles keeps them up 24/7. Most cities either schedule them for evenings or do as-needed.

[__MatrixMan__]

Yeah that makes sense. We weren't large enough to justify it though. They cancelled the program a few years later (2010ish). I haven't seen a police helicopter over this town since.

[20after4]

I live in a town of less than 3000 people and regularly see/hear the local county shariff's military grade helicopter loitering around for no good reason.

[boomboomsubban]

You may be right, but as a former resident of several towns of a similar size hearing a helicopter almost always meant somebody was in critical care and going to a big hospital.

[__MatrixMan__]

Ours was obvious, at least at night, because it was typically shining its spotlight on some spot on the ground.

Sometimes it would follow you around with the spotlight until a squad car came and pulled you over and accused you of a crime which a similar vehicle was involved with. In my case, the not-me truck was illegally harvesting rock from a park, but my truck bed was visibly empty from the sky so I don't know why they bothered summon the car.

[20after4]

The difference is that those helicopters don't just loiter around or hover over residential neighborhoods - they land at the nearest open field (in my case the town has a small airport) and immediately transport the patient 60 miles to a hospital. The helicopter I am talking about is definitely a military style helicopter and I'm 99% sure it's operated by the county sheriff's department. Gotta justify that budget somehow and there isn't much more fun way to do that than getting to play with big-boy-toys like helicopters.