Law-enforcement technologyUnused DHS fund help Pasadena upgrade helos
The city of Pasadena will use leftover funds from the 2008 Homeland Security Act to purchase a number of upgrades for its air operations unit; on 13 November the city council approved spending the remaining $650,000 of the original grant to purchase an array of high-tech devices, including an infrared camera, night-vision technology, and quiet technology tail rotor blades
The city of Pasadena will use leftover funds from the 2008 Homeland Security Act to purchase a number of upgrades for its air operations unit.
On 13 November the city council approved spending the remaining $650,000 of the original grant to purchase an array of high-tech devices, including an infrared camera, night-vision technology, and quiet technology tail rotor blades.
The funds were originally allocated to other districts that were then unable to fulfill their grant obligations.
$235,000 of the grant will go towards a thermal imaging device produced by Oregon-based FLIR Systems.
According to Pasadena City Manager Michael Beck, the cameras will greatly benefit to the city’s police force. “It’s an upgrade that we have on other helicopters. If you are looking for someone who is evading a police officer, who is running, they are going to put off heat, if you are looking for a weapon that’s been fired, it’s going to leave a heat print.”
The cameras can be used in a wide array of police activities from detecting heat given off by marijuana grow houses to analyzing traffic patterns during football games at the Rose Bowl, Beck said.
The city currently operates two helicopters already equipped with infrared technology.
It will also use $100,000 to purchase two video-downlink systems, which allow real-time video to be transmitted from the air.
Pasadena’s helicopters current serve not just the city itself, but a number of other localities without the resources for their own helicopter fleet.
