In a possible precursor to budget cuts, the Los Angeles controller has released an audit critical of that city’s police department's Air Support Division (ASD), including its size, costs, and patrol model. But city controller Kenneth Mejia, a former Green Party member and thrice-failed congressional candidate, expanded the audit beyond purely financial issues to attack the ASD on environmental and social grounds, charging that it causes “significant harm to the community.”
The audit criticized the ASD regarding several issues, including flying 61 percent of its 16,000 annual hours for activities not related to violent crime, keeping imprecise logs, its 762,000-gallon annual jet-A fuel burn and resultant carbon dioxide emissions, flying too often over high-crime areas, noise pollution, not flying high enough (typically flying at 500 to 700 feet agl), and overall effectiveness. It said the average flight hour cost for each helicopter is $2,916.
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