City Council Calls Proposal "Luxury"

Say, can you spare a quarter of a million dollars or so for an aircraft?

That's essentially the pitch from Fresno (CA) Police Chief Jerry Dyer to the city council.

The reply? "I don't want to be a smart aleck, but we're not an air force," said Council Member Brian Calhoun, an avid opponent of the idea. The council failed to support the purchase and now, Chief Dyer plans to appeal directly to the council president.

Dyer's force isn't completely ground-bound by any means. The Fresno Police Department runs a helicopter unit called Skywatch, founded in the late 1990s. He already rents an aircraft for $185 an hour. But the Fresno Bee reports Dyer doesn't want to continue renting because it's an unbudgeted expense.

Instead, the chief wants to spend part of a $713,800 grant from the Department of Homeland Security. Dyer figures a fixed-wing aircraft would be quieter, more economical for surveillance missions, and more capable of catching high-flying drug smugglers.

"We need to start thinking that we're a big city as we address big-city crime," Dyer told the council.

But some council members called the concept of a fixed wing police aircraft a "luxury." Calhoun wondered aloud what the department would ask for next. "Heck, two years from now you would want a bigger, faster plane and then you'd be into jets -- I'm trying not to be facetious."

Well, the chief wasn't laughing. "We need to start thinking that we're a big city as we address big-city crime," he said, as quoted in the Bee.

In the end, the council voted to accept the money, but turned down the idea of buying a plane for the police. Dyer figures he might have a chance to change some minds, though, and perhaps get a new vote.

"I'm hopeful, through our discussions and the information that I will provide him, they'll have a better opportunity to make an informed decision," Dyer told the Fresno paper.

FMI: www.fresno.gov/fpd