Just plane confusing: Public agencies have plenty of aircraft
By Trent Seibert | Tuesday, September 9th, 2008
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We noticed a posting over at the Houston Press Hair Balls blog about the Harris County Sheriff’s Department lamenting that they don’t have any helicopters or planes and that they feel they should have some eyes in the air like other sheriff’s departments have.
From Paul Knight via Hair Balls:
The department doesn’t have any helicopters or planes, so Eyes on the Border, a border watch group, was going to donate the plane it originally bought for sheriff’s departments near the border (before they discovered the border sheriffs couldn’t afford the plane). The County Commission was scheduled to vote on the donation this morning, but the sheriff’s department withdrew the request at the meeting.
“They probably got wind of the fact that the court had some questions, and they wanted time to respond,” says Joe Stinebaker, communications director for the Commissioners Court.
So Harris County will continue as the largest sheriff’s department without any deputies in the sky.Chief Danny Billingsley told the commissioners that the department recently tried to work out a contract with Silver State Helicopters, a private company that would’ve provided planes and helicopters and pilots, but that deal fell through.
Now, we’re new here, so correct us if this has been covered, but why is the sheriff’s department looking to partner with outside groups and businesses for its air travel needs? Can’t the department partner with Houston city government or the Houston Police? According to the Federal Aviation Administration, those two government entities have plenty of air power to go around.
The city of Houston has a bevy of helicopters and a Cessna. The police have no fewer than eight helicopters.
Heck, even the city health department has a Hughes 269C helicopter to get its folks around in.
Now, don’t get us wrong. We’re going to look into why the city needs all that air support. Heck, maybe there’s a good reason.
And maybe there’s a good reason why the city’s Cessna took a trip to Arkansas. (We’re going to look into that, too, but in the meantime, if anyone knows, shoot us an e-mail.)
But back to the topic at hand. … Can’t the city and county work something out and maybe keep the taxpayer from shelling out for yet another helicopter or plane?
