The Eye In The Sky: Evaluation of Police Helicopter Patrols London Ontario Police Service Helicopter

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The prime objectives of the London Police Helicopter Research Project were:

1) to evaluate whether helicopter patrols have a suppression effect on the incidence of various types of crime and occurrences (residential break and enter, commercial break and enter, auto theft, theft from auto, robbery, property damage, trespass by night, suspicious person and suspicious vehicle); and

2) evaluate whether a helicopter increases the operational effectiveness and/or efficiency of the police service. The suppression (deterrent) impact of helicopter patrols on rates of crime was primarily examined using a pre-test-post-test design with matched comparison areas, where, within each pair, the experimental and comparison areas were chosen randomly. Efficiency and effectiveness were evaluated by comparing a variety of indices of outcome for occurrences where the helicopter was included with occurrences for the police service as a whole.

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