Police helicopter surveillance over Thornbury

Police helicopter, Thornbury, Bristol BS35

This helicopter circled and hovered over Thornbury town centre, late in the afternoon of Saturday, 19 June 2010. Avon & Somerset Police, which has a joint helicopter unit with Gloucestershire Police, has no record of their helicopter being over Thornbury at that time. It's a crime to impersonate a police officer - I wonder if it's also a crime to impersonate a police helicopter?

Update [19 July 2010]: the police have now agreed that it is the helicopter of the Western Counties Air Operations Unit, and that the incident was recorded as "a concern for welfare".




helicopter "Avon & Somerset" police surveillance "Western Counties" "Air Operations Unit" Thornbury Bristol "South Gloucestershire" Avon Northavon
helicopter "Avon & Somerset" police surveillance "Western Counties" "Air Operations Unit" Thornbury Bristol "South Gloucestershire" Avon Northavon
helicopter "Avon & Somerset" police surveillance "Western Counties" "Air Operations Unit" Thornbury Bristol "South Gloucestershire" Avon Northavon
helicopter "Avon & Somerset" police surveillance "Western Counties" "Air Operations Unit" Thornbury Bristol "South Gloucestershire" Avon Northavon
helicopter "Avon & Somerset" police surveillance "Western Counties" "Air Operations Unit" Thornbury Bristol "South Gloucestershire" Avon Northavon
helicopter "Avon & Somerset" police surveillance "Western Counties" "Air Operations Unit" Thornbury Bristol "South Gloucestershire" Avon Northavon

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• helicopter
• Avon & Somerset
• police
• surveillance
• Western Counties
• Air Operations Unit
• Thornbury
• Bristol
• South Gloucestershire
• Avon
• Northavon

[mwingereza]

What do you think about the police force giving out incorrect information about its own helicopter? What reliance can be placed on Freedom of Information requests?

[tonfeddtrys]

This could hav been the South and East wales police chopper. They hav the same kind of chopper. EC135

[mwingereza]

@tonfeddtrys It seems to be a standard model for the UK police [see these videos watch?v=0gMRZQF91qI & watch?v=U28IYB_c-Os]. The one I filmed was local to here. My gripe was that the police Freedom of Information officer initially suggested that I was mistaken, and that it was not a police helicopter at all, because they had no record of their helicopter being over Thornbury at that time. Only when I insisted did they admit it was theirs. I had it on video, for goodness sake!

[pcjoel999]

@mwingereza it is not actually up to the Freedom Of Information Officer to publish the flying details of the Air Support Unit. in fact he has no access to the info until it is released by the ASU. usually the flight info is not released until the day after the flight. It is the Western Counties Air Support Unit in this video though.

[mwingereza]

@pcjoel999 An interesting comment which seems to assume that I asked for the information the same day. I asked for it almost three weeks later, to include in the final editing of the video. I did not appreciate being told that the helicopter was not over Thornbury at the time, when I had seen it and filmed it. So the information given out by the FoI officer of Avon & Somerset Constabulary was incorrect, and that should be a cause for concern.

[pcjoel999]

@mwingereza maybe the ASU witheld its flight info for some reason for a while? the FoI Officer probably didn't have the info.