Early take-off for new West Midlands Police helicopter

A new force helicopter to assist in West Midlands Police operations will take its first flight in July - one year after the previous one was destroyed by arsonists.

The helicopter is being delivered at least three months ahead of schedule. The hangar for the helicopter at Birmingham International Airport has been fitted out with state-of-the-art security measures to protect the aircraft from future attacks. These include motorised hangar doors, a reinforced steel pedestrian access, a full alarm system and CCTV.

West Midlands Police Authority's crime and operations committee chairman Phillip Holmes said: "We had originally expected the helicopter to be ready in October or November, so to have it this soon is a real bonus.

"It takes time as it has to be specially built and fitted with various devices such as infra-red and thermal imaging, plus search lights.

"We have improved security greatly to ensure our new helicopter is kept safe."

After the arson attack in July, the force bought a second-hand helicopter from Suffolk Police to use while they found a new one.

The new copter will be under the control of the Central Motorway Patrol Group along with a second helicopter currently used by forces in Staffordshire and West Mercia.

"It made sense to put the air service under one control," Mr Holmes said.

"One will be based in Staffordshire and one in Birmingham as before. This should improve efficiency as we'll have use of both if necessary."

The previous helicopter attended 2,745 call-outs in 2007/08 and 3,790 in 2008/09, and helped the force recover stolen property worth more than £3 million in a year.

Crews also carried out pursuits and searches. The helicopter was used 158 times to take photos, 17 times for public order incidents, 130 times for pursuits, 815 times for searches and 91 times for tactical support of officers.

By Charlotte Cross