Paragliding Policemen

Paragliding has caught the attention of not only adventurous individuals but men in the police profession, as well. Recently, stories of police officials patrolling on a powered paraglider have surprised the citizens of the United States and Peru.

SOAR

Police officials patrolling with the use of a powered paraglider first started in Palm Bay Florida, USA. The Palm Bay Police Department is the first law enforcement agency in the United States to deploy a team, dubbed SOAR or Search Operations Aerial Response, for search and rescue operations. The Palm Bay Police are aiming to address the city?s problems with missing children and adults, stolen cars and property with the use of an ultra-light gliding aircraft.

SOAR is tasked to do surveillance and scouting, photographing crime scenes, spotting hazards in the city and assessing damage after disasters. Operation SOAR makes routine aerial patrols in selected areas within Palm Bay, where there are a high number of residential burglaries and other crimes of that kind.

Peru’s Gliding Police

Peru’s police department designated a group of policemen and women to patrol in the coasts of Lima. The Head of the Seventh Territorial Direction, Police General Oswaldo Hernandez Revolle proclaimed this innovation of Peru?s law enforcement strategy last November 2009. This innovation was undertaken with the aim of ensuring the safety of the public. Peru?s aerial police on paraglides started their new duty last November 27.

Disadvantages

The idea of police patrolling on a paraglider is deemed ridiculous by many citizens both in the United States and in Peru. The Federal Aviation Administration of the US is not thrilled about the idea of Palm Bay?s Police Department.

The reasons- first of course a powered paraglider only has 18 horsepower. Remember that the operation SOAR actually hopes to catch burglars with the use of a powered paraglider. Eighteen horsepower is only equivalent to a lawn mower. So a powered paraglider can never match the speed of a moving vehicle and criminals are mostly on wheels. Then there?s the problem with the constantly changing and mostly unpredictable air velocity and air direction changes. It will be ridiculous to find policemen being tossed here and there by the wind.

These police agencies also plan to fly the powered paraglider less than 400 feet, which reminds us about a paragliding accident involving a pilot who got caught by the statue of liberty. The statue of liberty stands in the middle of a wide open space, a city on the other hand has several dozens of buildings standing taller than 400 ft.

Paragliding has encouraged a lot of new ideas for innovation but paragliding for police patrolling? Surely, government officials have to rethink this one.