The New York Police Aviation Unit began as a response to national security fears during World War I, establishing it as the first police force with an aviation component. Early postwar optimism over the future of aviation, and enthusiastic supporters like future New York City mayor Fiorella La Guardia, helped create a promising reserve auxiliary that even had the active participation of women pilots. However, the missions for this type of auxiliary force were not well understood and its accomplishments were more publicity than practical. A decade passed before the most useful applications for aerial policing became apparent. By 1929, reckless flying and Prohibition-era liquor and drug smuggling had reached epidemic proportions and city officials turned to aviation as a solution, resulting in the establishment of the Air Service Division.
As the first urban aviation police division in the United States, New York established an important model for other departments. For five years, the Aviation Service Division performed exemplary service with its amphibious flying boats. While the dense high-rises of Manhattan defied aerial patrol, the complex coastal geography and maritime traffic around New York City made aviation a powerful law enforcement tool.
Unfortunately, the first twenty-five years of New York City’s police aviation unit were rocked by external forces as the Great Depression and World War II disrupted its development. From 1946, when it was down to one airplane and less than a dozen personnel, the Aviation Bureau slowly grew again under the authority of the Emergency Services Division.
Many of the missions in the early decades of the unit revolved around water rescue and boats in distress, with the policing of aerial rulebreakers as a secondary priority. By the early 1970s the Aviation Bureau’s helicopters began to take on active crime prevention duties as economic turmoil and a rapidly changing cityscape led to spikes in violent crime. Infrared binoculars and searchlights helped enable aerial countermeasures to an epidemic of organized crime hijackings of commercial trucks.
New roles required a new generation of helicopters and the piston-powered Bell 47s of the 1940s-1960s gave way to Bell JetRangers, LongRangers, and Hueys from the 1970s-1990s. The need for helicopters that could fight crime as well as respond to maritime disasters and high-rise structure fires led to the need for ever-more expensive designs that invited public debate, especially when the aircraft were used for VIP transport. September 11, 2001 changed the face of the Aviation Unit as aircrews could only watch as the World Trade Center towers collapsed. The need for homeland security capabilities, such as interoperability with other law enforcement and public safety agencies at the local, state, and federal levels meant new sensors, datalinks, and onboard systems, resulting in a highly capable and adaptive aerial force that can rapidly respond to wide array of contingencies.
Perhaps the best example of the Aviation Division Reserves in providing support for advancing promising aviators was Laura Bromwell. The Cincinnatian had already gained fame as a daredevil by leaping from a suspension bridge (a potential path to celebrity at the time) and her notoriety allowed her to go to New York. There she trained at the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Corporation factory and joined the Aviation Reserves as a Lieutenant. She soon became identified as the first American woman to gain a license after the wartime ban on such accreditations ended and was designated in the press as the first woman commercial pilot, taking passengers for sightseeing in Atlantic City. Her career in the Aviation Division Reserves means that the first woman to serve as a pilot in aerial law enforcement came into service barely a year after the first men.
Courtesy of NYPD
Courtesy of NYPD
The Reserve was rarely called upon for significant law enforcement or life-saving functions, averaging only about 100 hours of flight time per year. Typical activities included keeping other airplanes away from large gatherings on the ground, watching for ships discharging oil in their bilgewater, and looking for drowning victims. Though serving as a model for the U.S. Naval Aviation Reserves, the organization quickly faded after 1925 without chalking up any meaningful successes.
Unfortunately, only a handful of women like Laura Bromwell were able to participate in law enforcement aviation in the early 1920s before gender norms barred women from further aerial service for at least another five decades.
September 11, 2001: In the Aviation Unit’s most challenging operation, its helicopters orbit the two burning World Trade Center towers which had been struck by airliners hijacked by terrorists. After considerable debate, permission is denied for the helicopters to attempt any rescue or landings due to the extreme heat and smoke. No trapped survivors from the impacts were observed to make it to the roofs. Investigations after the collapse of the towers supported the decision not to land the helicopters. Other concerns were raised about the effectiveness of inter-agency communications when the helicopter crews’ observations, suggesting that a collapse of the first tower was imminent, were not reported to other agencies. There was also no evidence that such information would have arrived soon enough to save lives.
NYPD helicopter above the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001
Courtesy of NYPD
NYPD helicopter on September 11, 2003
Courtesy of NYPD
September 11, 2003: On the two-year anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the Aviation Unit takes delivery of its first Bell 412EP helicopter designed to deal with the new era of homeland security contingencies. With optics five times more powerful than anything previously fielded on the unit’s helicopters, along with microwave datalinks and communications equipment optimized for inter-agency communications, the new aircraft is a significant improvement on the existing 412SPs in the fleet. The $9.8 million aircraft is paid for through another post-9/11 trend in airborne law enforcement – a Department of Justice grant.
