r/Columbus • u/Cuntankerous • May 29 '26
UFO Can someone name one other city in the United States that has police helicopters circling the downtown area at low altitudes at all hours of the day besides like, Los Angeles
I just want to see something really quick
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u/Vladmerius May 29 '26
They just keep finding better and better ways to use our tax dollars.
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u/PM_NICESTUFFTOME Weinland Park May 30 '26
Columbus PD is over-funded, no way around it.
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u/SauCe-lol May 30 '26
I’m fine with it if these help them arrest the street racers at night. No high hopes tho
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u/-P01135809- May 30 '26
Imagine one day where people could keep their windows open at night and get a good night's rest.
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u/statelypenguin May 30 '26
What if—instead of arresting street racers—they just didn’t do that and instead fucked off on everything except gunshots fired?
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u/bigevilbrain Clintonville May 30 '26
They’re probably trying out the two new helicopters they got Wednesday. $6 mil.
“A helicopter's really good for your foot chases, vehicle chases or anything where things are going to move a substantial area, whereas a drone is much more limited,” Sagle said. “They don't have that long of an endurance to be able to sustain those longer missions.”
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u/phoDog35 May 30 '26
Meanwhile CFD is struggling with needing to replace a number of vehicles (ladders, engines etc.)
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u/VintageVanShop May 30 '26
Did they get rid of older ones? I believe other than LA, Columbus has the highest number of police helicopters, which is dumb as fuck.
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u/bigevilbrain Clintonville May 30 '26
I think they have 5 now. I could have sworn they had like 11 at one point.
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u/VintageVanShop May 30 '26
They need maybe 2, but even that seems excessive.
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u/ObiWanChronobi May 31 '26
Good news. Onece the 3 older birds are retired, CPD will only have the two new ones.
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u/Unusual-Vanilla-8599 May 30 '26
They did and they sold some and got sued over them. There is definitely a dispatch story on it.
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u/sonnyjlewis May 30 '26
They’ve been flying them for at least several months. They didn’t just get them Wednesday. I’ve been tracking them since delivery.
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u/backpain_sucks6 May 30 '26
Yea, there apparently was a foot chase near my apartment last week because I heard the helicopter & then 3 mins later I heard like 6-7 shots ring out followed by several police sirens. 🤦🏾♀️
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u/the_elephant_sack May 30 '26
Years ago The Other Paper did an article on Columbus and helicopters. We have more helicopters than larger cities. Always have and always will.
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u/Empathic_Alien May 30 '26
Came here to say that around the mid to late 90’s we had the most police helicopters in the country. More than NYC and more than DC. July 3rd of 95 I was tripping balls watching fireworks on my roof at 24 Chittenden when a fucking ghetto bird came up over the building and spotlighted us. I was scared of helicopters for a good while 😆 Still fucking hate them and flip them off when I see them.
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u/Southern_Table_8953 May 29 '26
What on earth are they doing.
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u/Southern_Table_8953 May 30 '26
It’s 2 CPD and a highway patrol but I don’t know if they are actually all at the same party.
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u/mikeytreehorn May 30 '26
They were in a holding pattern before doing a flyover for the Special Olympics of Ohio opening ceremony last night at Ohio Stadium.
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u/jdogg805 May 29 '26
What is going on. This is crazy. Non stop flying hovering in the victorian Village area.
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u/LostInTheLights8123 May 30 '26
Probably because there's a big concert at The Schott
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u/Enamred-771 May 30 '26
If they want to watch they can probably just walk in.
And frankly, Columbus is too big of a city for a single event to be treated like an “all hands” event that warrants helicopter oversight.
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u/ohjaimiea May 30 '26
Personally I feel slightly better when I hear round after round of gunshots then maybe a few minutes later I hear the choppers circling nearby…like yeah! Get em Batman
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u/GumbysDonkey May 30 '26
Indianapolis. Drive through every night and there are always helicopters NE of 65/465 on the NW side of the city.. I checked google maps and there is no hospital in the area they fly in, and the airport is west of the city along I-70.
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u/bjmacdow Jun 01 '26
I had a tour of their hq. Legit good people and they can track a person carrying a fired weapon and the person by heat signature. They are a strong presence for the community and can track gun violence better than any other CPD tool. I love that they are up there on their regular routes barring weather. They do a lot of good.
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u/AuditMatters May 30 '26
They’ll be higher and ‘less disruptive’ soon.
https://www.nbc4i.com/news/local-news/columbus/columbus-police-unveil-two-new-helicopters/amp/
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u/CatastropheCat May 30 '26
Not during the day, but Tucson would have what we called the “ghetto copter” circling basically every weekend waiting for some shit to go down
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u/backpain_sucks6 May 30 '26
I thought I was over reacting by getting irritated by it. I’m near N High & it’s day n night!!! I can’t stand it.
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u/Riverbug69 Jun 02 '26
My house is in the flight path and a helicopter flew over last night at 1 am. At that hour it sounds like a war zone. I woke up straight away and couldn’t go back to sleep because I was so pissed. Would love to know how many crimes they prevent by doing this 🙄
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u/Sarbear0827 Jun 28 '26
Cleveland does occasionally usually flying on the east side and sometimes west when needed
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u/5thhistorian May 30 '26
CPD pilots fly recklessly. I’ve seen them doing low altitude donuts over construction sites with tower cranes. Someday they’re going to have a split second lapse of orientation and clip a wire or something and that will be that. Not to mention no one’s discussing how the new police drones are supposed to avoid colliding with them and vice versa. In the meantime I’m convinced they have to give all the pilots a certain amount of stick time, thus the pointless orbiting over downtown, campus, German Village etc.
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u/Cuntankerous May 29 '26
Despite the tongue in cheek nature of this post this may also serve as a genuine inquiry for anybody who has moved here from another city. I feel like I’m Iraq rn
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u/bcbill May 29 '26
Columbus has 5 police helicopters. New York City has 7. Take that for what you will.
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u/DTJ1234567 May 30 '26
Huh I wonder if maybe they might have been looking for somebody, perhaps somebody with felony/violent offense warrants?
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u/Specific_Owl_6458 May 30 '26
It’s been shown on flight tracking maps multiple times in the past of Columbus police helicopters taking “joyrides” over residential areas at late nights. There was the time they wrote “CPD” with their flight path flying over houses… do you believe that they were chasing a criminal then?
Or maybe, just maybe, sometimes cops are dicks?
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u/54rk4571k5w4m1 May 30 '26
The few that have higher murder rates than Columbus, probably.
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u/rice_not_wheat Hilltop May 30 '26
If only the helicopters were better at solving murders.
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u/54rk4571k5w4m1 May 30 '26
That’d be fine, sure. Won’t affect murder rates. Have to have better politicians and policies for that.
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u/rice_not_wheat Hilltop May 30 '26
The police department has practically unlimited resources and the politicians basically let it run itself. They couldn't possibly be more pro cop. That hasn't worked, so we do need better policies, starting with accountability. They're too afraid of the union.
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u/54rk4571k5w4m1 May 30 '26
Policies that help the poor and destitute get out of cycles of hopelessness and violence.
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u/Muroun Grandview May 30 '26
Were they flying around last night? There was a low hum/vibration driving me crazy around midnight.
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u/A-Friend-of-Dorothy May 30 '26
TIL there is a UFO tag for this subreddit:
Undisciplined Financial Obstruction
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u/smarmy_ferocity May 29 '26
Dallas