Paragliding Cops

Posted by Miss Cellania in Car & Vehicle, Crime & Law on May 11, 2009 at 10:50 am


Officers of the Palm Bay Police Department in Florida keep an eye on a large area by using motorized paragliders!

Police Chief Bill Berger says they are a way for the department to have a bird’s eye view of the semi-rural city at minimal cost.

“Because we don’t have a lot of roadway here, this gives us the ability to basically take short cuts,” said Berger.

The vehicles and training cost $10,000 per officer, which is cost-effective compared to using helicopters. And they have other benefits.

Chief Berger sees the gliders as an ideal tool for searching for missing elderly people who have wandered away.

“The problem with helicopters is you can’t go below 1,000 feet,” said Berger. “The canopy of trees in our community prevented the helicopter from seeing a woman who had [died] close to her car. The paragliders would have been able to get much lower.”

Link -via Fark

(image credit: ABC News)


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COMMENT

12 comments to "Paragliding Cops"

  1. felixthecat
    May 11th, 2009 at 11:09 am

    Hmmm... my community spends $15000 every year for police chaplains. That's for each one of them. For training, new uniforms, badges, "official" crosses, and so on. And what do these 7 chaplains do? Nothing but strut around the area in uniform.

    Paragliding cops are much more cool.

  2. Skipweasel
    May 11th, 2009 at 11:46 am

    How could you resist the urge to shut the engine off and swoop down on some curmudgeonly criminal and, pouncing silently from behind, scare the life out of them?

    I know I couldn't.

  3. Ajan
    May 11th, 2009 at 11:51 am

    Wow, fart-bombs would be a lot easier now..
    Hey You thieving idiot... F uuuuuuuuu

  4. pyroger101
    May 11th, 2009 at 12:17 pm

    ha when pigs fly eh?! :P ( joke great respect for cops)

  5. TBV
    May 11th, 2009 at 12:19 pm

    "Para Cops"... wasn't this a syndicated cop show starring Adrian Zmed back in the 80s?

  6. ted
    May 11th, 2009 at 1:23 pm

    So they saw her car, but they couldn`t see her? Did they not send somebody on foot to look at the car?

  7. Skipweasel
    May 11th, 2009 at 2:29 pm

    ted:- There may have been a doughnut shop in the way.

    Of course - that'll be next, hovering doughnut vendors. Or possibly a delivery service carrying doughnuts slung under helium balloons.

  8. Abbey
    May 11th, 2009 at 5:38 pm

    I don't really like this... Are they police or are they spies? Minus the missing person's uses of course.

  9. vonskippy
    May 11th, 2009 at 5:46 pm

    What a waste of money.

  10. Kalel
    May 11th, 2009 at 10:02 pm

    lol@pyroger101 ! Ha!

  11. DaveL
    May 11th, 2009 at 10:35 pm

    I hereby invent the term, "Donut Vulture".

  12. neatoman
    May 12th, 2009 at 5:48 am

    Cops to working, law abiding Americans are like paying full coverage car insurance. You pay thousands of dollars a year on them in case you're ever a victim of the scum that lives all around you. And in turn you never file a dime of claims. And all you got was this news article.


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