LAPD Air Support Division
| Los Angeles Police Department Air Support Division | |
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Patch of the LAPD Air Support Division
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Logo of the Los Angeles Police Department Air Support Division
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| Motto | "To Protect and to Serve" |
| Agency overview | |
| Formed | 1956 |
| Legal personality | Governmental: Government agency |
| Jurisdictional structure | |
| Operations jurisdiction* | City of Los Angeles in the state of California, United States |
| Size | 498 sq mi (1,290 km²) |
| Population | 3.8 million |
| Legal jurisdiction | City of Los Angeles, California |
| General nature |
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| Operational structure | |
| Headquarters |
LAPD Hooper Heliport 555 Ramirez Street, Los Angeles, California |
| Police Officers | Approx. 88 |
| Agency executives |
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| Parent agency | Los Angeles Police Department |
| Facilities | |
| Helicopters | 19 |
| Fixed-wings | 1 |
| Footnotes | |
| * Divisional agency: Division of the country, over which the agency has usual operational jurisdiction. | |
The Los Angeles Police Department Air Support Division (ASD) is the airborne law enforcement program of the LAPD. It is the largest municipal airborne law enforcement organization in the United States and operates from the LAPD Hooper Heliport.
While originally devoted to aerial traffic enforcement, it has grown to support a wide variety of police activity. Today, its operations are divided between Air Support To Regular Operations (ASTRO) and Special Flight Section (SFS). The ASD motto is The mission is the same, only the vehicle has changed. The Air Support Division currently operates 19 aircraft of 2 different models, and maintains the largest municipal police aviation unit around the world, in addition to having the world's largest roof-top airport and world's busiest heliport.
The Air Support Division (ASD) was established as the LAPD Helicopter Unit in 1956 with one Hiller UH-12C Three-seat helicopter. They added a second helicopter in 1963 and a third in 1965. The city operated Bell 47G and 47J model helicopters. In 1968, the unit received its first Bell 206A JetRanger. With a major expansion in 1974, the Helicopter Unit was renamed the Air Support Division. At that time, the ASD grew to 15 helicopters and one Cessna 210 manned by 77 sworn personnel. In 1976, the ASD added the Special Flight Section (SFS), a unit dedicated to supporting undercover police operations. In this support role, SFS is a significant contributor to narcotics and serialized criminal investigations. In 1988, the ASD added its first Aerospatiale AS350 B1. The city replaced all but 4 of the Bell 206 JetRangers and retired the older piston models.
Today the Air Support Division consists of 88 sworn personnel and 19 helicopters which include five Bell 206B3 JetRangers, 14 Eurocopter AS-350B2 AStars, and one Beechcraft King Air 200 twin-engined aircraft.
The city of Los Angeles briefly flew a fleet of Bell 407s in the late 1990s as a replacement for the AS-350B1s. However, in 2000 the LAPD started replacing the 407s with more powerful AS-350B2s. Two of the 407s were sold to the General Services Department which uses the helicopters on flights for the Department of Water and Power.
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