THE Cheshire police helicopter was deployed in Warrington today – to help catch a shoplifter.
Numerous officers were also involved in a foot chase near to the town centre before the alleged offender was arrested
Helicopter deployed – to help catch a shoplifter
33 Comments
3 Comments
Anyone who shoplifts deserves to be caught and dealt with accordingly but crikey what on earth did they steal and where from if it warranted police helicopter to be used to catch them too? Unless I’m mistaken doesn’t it cost somewhere around £800 an hour for the heli to be up ? If charged with the offence the culprit should have to pay costs to cover any costs involved !
If they were trying to arrest a murderer or an armed robber it would be reasonable to use a helicopter but to use such expensive services to catch shoplifters is a disgraceful waste of public money. There are more efficient and far cheaper ways of dealing with these types of crime. The shops should be fitted with CCTV equipment that is fit for purpose. A crime prevention fund to help those who would struggle to afford good CCTV would be money better spent than helicopter chases.
Interesting article regarding the use and cost of police helicopters: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25181502
Guess at some stage, as with the RAF, manned aircraft will be replaced for certain operations by less costly drones.