Aviation Unit
The Aviation Unit is a collateral
duty work group comprised of a
program manager, two team leaders,
and 16 officers. The unit operates
Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) in
support of the department’s mission.
In 2019, the unit completed
218 operational missions, which is
a significant increase from the 87
operational deployments in 2018.
The Aviation Unit assisted on 66
apprehensions which included an
inside flight where three aggravated
robbery suspects were captured. These
deployments are often the result of
an emergency. Their missions include
SWAT operations, traffic crash scenes,
in-progress suspect searches, and
high-risk mission person searches.
The team also completes
promotional videography and
photography assignments for the
police department as well as other city
departments.
In 2019, the Aviation Unit obtained
new aircraft that are far more capable
than the previous aircraft used. The
Aviation Unit uses the Mavic Enterprise
series UAS and leverages the speaker
and spotlight attachments to serve as
de-escalation tools. Some protracted
police calls for service were solved
simply by using the UAS to call the
suspect out of their house. The
Arlington Citizens Police Academy
Alumni Association (ACPAAA) recently
purchased an even more capable
aircraft to assist with large area
searches. The Matrice 210 aircraft will
make searching for critical missing
persons in places like River Legacy
Park far easier. The support provided
to the Aviation Unit from the ACPAAA
is a true testament to the community
buy-in our agency enjoys. The
Aviation Unit performs many public
outreach efforts, routinely providing
demonstrations and presentations for
community groups.
The Aviation Unit was asked to
present at the International Association
Chiefs of Police (IACP) conference. As
the unit continues to evolve, there are
many future plans, including assigning
a dedicated patrol vehicle to the
Aviation Unit to assist in the equipment
intensive process of deploying the
Matrice 210 aircraft. The Aviation Unit’s
work in following a suspect who fled
from a SWAT operation was featured
on local media.
2019 218 missions
completed
2018 87 missions
completed
Operational deployments
60% increase from 2018-2019
Arlington, Texas Police Department |
59