Spies In The Sky | Jackson Free Press | Jackson, MS

Spies In The Sky

By Adam Lynch Wednesday, December 27, 2006 10:21 p.m. CST
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Photo by Jaro Vacek

Jackson and the metro area have a new set of eyes in the sky, thanks to local helicopter pilot Coyt Bailey, SafeCity Watch, philanthropist Jim Barksdale and other private donors, who together donated about $700,000 for the purchase of a surveillance helicopter that will cruise the skies over Jackson and Ridgeland.

"We're always talking about needing more judges, more prosecutors, more jail space, more this, more that. We don't have the money for that, ladies and gentlemen. What we do have the money for is preventing crime. I think you're going to be turning on the television and hearing about crimes that were about to happen being stopped," announced SafeCity director Mark McCreery.

"Law enforcement can be more effective if it's got the most modern equipment," said Barksdale, who would not disclose how much he donated to the project.

A crowd filled the grassy lot of One Jackson Place Dec. 15 to view the touchdown of the R44 Raven II helicopter that will support law enforcement with an aerial view of possible crimes in action, assist in manhunts, and do photo missions, emergency response maneuvers and routine patrol.

Local helicopter pilot and Metro One, LLC, Director Coyt Bailey said it has taken about a decade to get the machine in Jackson.

"It's got all the equipment in it that any state-of-the-art helicopter has. There's nothing different that Los Angeles or New York or the big aviation units have that this helicopter doesn't have," Bailey said.

The R44 is growing in popularity in other parts of the country, such as California, where the San Bernardino Police Department celebrated the purchase of its own R44 helicopter in August. That machine, like the Metro One, comes with a mapping system, infrared and a searchlight.

Aside from the opening costs, Metro One has a yearly maintenance budget of more than half a million dollars. Metro One, LLC, owner Metro One Mercury Aviation Inc., of Flowood, is paying nearly $350,000 of those costs, with SafeCity donating more than $100,000. McCreery said the Hinds County Sheriff's Department and JPD will pay another $25,000 each, and that Ridgeland and Madison will join in the financing. The latter may pay $10,000 each. Hinds County supervisors voted Dec. 18 to approve the $25,000 fee for the vehicle.

Metro One Program Manager Andy Robinson said the vehicle is fully insured if it does damage to city or private property during the course of its use. The same insurers handling the company's other helicopters, such as the weather and traffic-report copter, fully cover Metro One. The coverage, he added, is costly.

"The insurance is actually a large percentage of the yearly budget," Robinson said.

Bailey refused to submit a copy of the insurance policy to the JFP for review.

"We don't make a habit of sending out information like that," Bailey said.

A National Transportation Safety Board probable-cause report of helicopter accidents between 1998 through 2002 revealed that the R44 series suffered few accidents compared to other popular models such as the Bell 206 Series and the Robinson R22 Series. The R44 suffered a total of 15 accidents between 1998 and 2002, with 14 of those attributed to pilot error, and one due to maintenance trouble. By contrast, the Bell 206 suffered 141 accidents, with nine of those due to engine failure. The Bell 206 is a much older model than the R44, however.

McCreery said SafeCity is the chief funding agent of the helicopter. The crime watchdog group, which sponsored Mayor Frank Melton's crime summit, features board members Warren Speed, radio pundit Alan Lange, Entergy development guru Haley Fisackerly, and others such as Wirt Yerger and Joseph Lauderdale. Melton was listed as a board member as recently as this year, though he claims he is not affiliated with the group any longer.

"We've donated a good chunk to make this purchase possible, and we're going to be raising money to keep the service financed," McCreery said. "Hopefully, the cities around us, we can get them all involved, and they'll be a pretty good-sized part of the funding."

The vehicle, called Metro One, features an array of high technology and spying devices, such as a 360-degree 18x zoom color camera, video recording, a GPS inflight map, a 20-million candle searchlight and, most notably, an infrared camera that can pick up both biological and mechanical heat signals.

"The infrared on that can literally pick up somebody breathing," McCreery said. "We can use that function finding meth labs."

Metro One, LLC, has a memorandum of understanding with the city of Jackson, in lieu of an actual contract. In the memorandum of understanding, which the JFP acquired last week, the city has a responsibility to pay Metro One an initial $25,000, with a varying contribution to operating costs for each year the city participates in the helicopter program. Metro One also expects the city to help sell the idea of Metro One to other donors, educate the public on Metro One services, and recognize Metro One employees as independent of the city. The city may opt out of the program at any time.

Mississippi ACLU executive Director Nsombi Lambright said she has concerns over privacy issues with a large spying device hovering over the city, whether a government agency or a private company runs it.

"We're certainly concerned about the neighborhood profiling and the violation of privacy rights," Lambright said, explaining that many residents should be concerned over the high-altitude peeking, whether it was coming from the government or a private company like Metro One, LLC. Lambright added that she hoped the city would increase its crime-fighting efforts through interacting with community associations.

Hinds County DA Faye Peterson said that helicopter pilots can submit evidence gathered without a warrant for court cases so long as the evidence can be categorized as "within plain view."

"Proving that it's in plain view may be kind of difficult, and will have to be done on a case-by-case basis, though," Peterson said, explaining that a glass greenhouse full of marijuana in a suspect's backyard may not count as plain view, whereas an open field would.

"A defense attorney is likely to dispute anything, so you have to look at it on a case-by-case basis," she said.

The Florida Supreme Court ruled in a 1989 case (Florida v. Riley) that evidence collected by a helicopter in that case was in violation of the Fourth Amendment, and the court suppressed it. The ACLU argued in that case that positioning a helicopter directly over a residence and buildings within its curtilage (such as a greenhouse 20 feet behind the house) invades the heightened privacy expectations of the home and oversteps what society is prepared to recognize as reasonable.

Patrick Camden, deputy director of news for the city of Chicago, said they had never had a problem with evidence submitted by pilots getting kicked out of courts.

"No, I don't recall the evidence from our helicopter as being inadmissible, but let me tell you, we just got a helicopter back into the city this year," Camden said. "We had one before, but lost it. The budget for that thing was remarkable, and we just couldn't afford it."

Here is Jackson's Memorandum of Understanding (PDF, 1.5 MB) with the helicopter company

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