When beach residents hear a helicopter flying overhead, chances are it’s a police helicopter. “We are considered to be one of the best aviation law enforcements in the country,” said Sgt. Paul Connelly, head of the San Diego Police Department’s (SDPD) Airborne Law Enforcement (ABLE) unit. The ABLE unit flies inside one of the busiest and most complicated airspaces in the country, said ABLE’s Sgt. Robert Gassmann. The pilots share airspace with the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Coast Guard, sightseeing flights and news choppers, as well as other public and private pilots. “You happen to be in a corridor that gets a lot of air traffic,” Connelly said of the beach community air space. In addition, the unit contends with ocean and mountain range boundaries, an international border, Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, Gillespie Airport and crossing the flights paths of Lindbergh Field. “Not every jurisdiction has borders,” Gassmann said. He said their job is to protect the public and apprehend suspects. “You’ve got to be all things to all people as the need requires,” Gassmann said. The unit maintains a tally of statistics called BASIC, which is an acronym for “because of ABLE suspect in custody.” ABLE has responded to 8,569 radio calls in the past year and it was solely responsible for 663 arrests while responding to those calls. “These are usually dangerous suspects who would have otherwise evaded capture had the helicopter not been present,” Connelly said. SDPD Special Operations Assistant Chief Robert Kanaski recounted one such incident in Pacific Beach in April. An armed man robbed the Radio Shack located at 1603 Garnet Ave., and fled on foot to a shopping center on Sports Arena Boulevard. A police officer pursued the suspect on foot. Kanaski recounted that the officer was about to turn a corner, but he stopped short because ABLE was overhead and saw that the suspect was around the corner of the building with his gun drawn. Kanaski was certain that had ABLE not been there, the officer would have been shot. “The patrol officers rely on us,” Connelly said. “We make it a much safer environment.” The department has four helicopters and one Cessna plane, used for surveillance, transportation and extradition. “The helicopter is a great crook-catching machine,” Connelly said. Each helicopter is staffed with two police officers who spend two hours at a time on patrol in the air. “We are listening for calls we think we can assist on,” Connelly said. The helicopters are Eurocopter Astar B3 helicopters. They are quieter than the helicopters the department had prior. “We are very conscientious about the noise,” Connelly said. “We purposely stay higher to alleviate noise.” The helicopters have a light, referred to as “the night sun,” a FLIR (forward looking infrared radar) and a television screen for surveillance purposes. Each helicopter is in direct contact with SDPD units on the ground and is able to send images to them from the air. Since the unit began in1985, it has never had an accident. The pilots are professional, commercial-rated and held to the same standards that the Federal Aviation Administration requires of all pilots. They will go where they are needed, but they are specifically for the SDPD. Examples of mutual aid cases they might assist with are wildfire calls or stranded hikers in the mountains. Each helicopter is equipped with a backpack of supplies and first aid items that can be dropped down to stranded individuals until rescuers arrive on foot to assist them. The pilot sits on the right and the tactical officer sits on the left. Both must have extensive experience as police officers on the ground prior to joining ABLE. It takes a helicopter team seven to 10 minutes to become airborne when it is called upon during a non-patrol time. A helicopter crew can travel from the Mexican border to Del Mar in approximately 12 minutes. To fly from Montgomery Field, where ABLE is headquartered, to Pacific Beach takes about two minutes once airborne. “The nature of our business is that we really don’t know how serious it is until we get there,” Gassmann said. “The presence of the police helicopter increases probability of capturing suspects, reduces liability and ultimately makes a safer environment for the responding officers and for the citizens that we are here to protect and serve,” Connelly said. ABLE: BY THE NUMBERS OVER THE LAST YEAR • The unit flew 3,500 hours • Crews responded to 8,569 radio calls • ABLE was the first police unit on scene 3,822 times out of the 8,569 radio calls • Involved in 2,315 arrests • Solely responsible for 663 of these arrests • Crews were involved in 51 vehicle pursuits and 64 foot pursuits — Compiled by Debbie Hatch