In the last 10 - 15 years, police helicopters have been mainstreamed in many medium to larger sized cities across the country - to aid law enforcement officers on the ground in apprehending scumbag suspects and criminals running from the law.

In the two cities I spend much of the time of the year in, Omaha, NE., and Dallas, Texas the nightime activities of these police helicopters circling parts of the city I am trying to get a good night's sleep in, has become maddening. I am fully used to the comings and goings of the Care and Life Flight choppers that cross the airpath above my home at all hours, heading to and from Baylor University Hospital in near east downtown Dallas, but the police helicopters circling for up to an hour between 12 - 4 a.m. is getting a bit much. It is sometimes a circus procession of police cars running the streets at the same time.

Does anyone else living in an urban setting find nightime police helicopter activities unnerving? A police helicopter has been circling as I type this note, but has left......twice earlier this week, same deal. The weekends are an especially ripe time for these endless flights above my part of the city. I wonder if I should move to the country?

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Or a secondary municipality...major metro areas have this problem.

I live in a community (pop 34,000) about a 1/2 hour drive from Fort-Worth and 45 minutes from Dallas. Actually, most cities have a lot of smaller communities surrounding the major metro areas, and they don't seem to have those issues.

I know if a copter started doing rounds above my neighborhood, it's time to look for another place to live!

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My sister calls them "ghetto birds".

It seems as though they have a "flight hours" requirement for their pilots. We'll go three or four months of never seeing one and then almost constant for about a week.

Seems to be the same for the med-evacs. I live 4 blocks from a major hospital and get the same pattern.

Houston has a few, but I don't hear them too often. Then again, I live in a very good part of town that's covered in pine trees; if the cop heli comes near me, he's usually just passing over at a high speed. Move to a better neighborhood?

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- Brian


1989 500SEL Euro
1966 250SE Cabriolet
1958 BMW Isetta 600

That's what I was thinking the only time we see police choppers is during pot patch time and they hover around my property while we look at each other through binoculars.

Just don't get caught looking at them through the scope

If police helicopters started being routine near my house, I would move. Don't like them, don't like what they're looking for.

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1983 300SD - 305000
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Sounds like you need to move to the other side of the tracks.

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We have traffic choppers along I-70 at rush hour, and rarely hear anything at night. August Busch III lives near me, and I used to see his chopper taking him to and from the brewery, but that was during the day too.

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nope no police helicopters except for pot season, just an A-10 every now and then. when you hear it then a second later the house shakes you know its an A-10 because their the only ones that fly that low around here

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-1978 300D

I have never seen a police helicopter, but since I live under the flight path of both Sikorsky and Stratford I see a lot of military choppers flying overhead. Whenever Bush used to visit New Haven there was always a lot of activity. They convoy, the last one I saw was three Black Hawks, and what looked like a pair of Rangers or something more civilian looking in very tight formation flying towards New York going about as fast as they could go.

Being near Sikorsky Black Hawk's are commen, don't even notice them anymore, the Comanche was pretty cool when they were flying them. I also see a lot of warbirds flying into Startford from the Confederate air force and private people, a B17 was circling a month ago.

The coolest was a navy C130 that decided to go vertical over LIS and do some neat stuff, I didn't think a C130 could menuver like that.

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They used to be a major pain in the ass in the apartment complex I used to live in for eight years in north central Phoenix. Every damm perp seemed to run into the place after midnight and you could have the choppers circling around from anything from a half an hour two two hours.

Since moving to our house way out on the fringes of the settlement we've only had one in the last year.

- Peter.

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Formerly...
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1981 240D 4spd stick. 389000 miles.
1984 123 200
1979 116 280S
1972 Cadillac Sedan DeVille
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I also live right by a hospital and we have gotten used to the air lift flying in and out. Plus the Navy has a bombing range in Avon Park and the jets like to fly over our subdivision a hundred-two hundred off the deck. I swear it, I can kinda make out the navy markings on them.

I enjoy watching military aircraft fly over, its the one thing my tax dollars fund that I support. Its like getting a little bit of a show for my money.

Those nice shiney new F22's cost a bundle to!

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2016 Corvette Stingray 2LT
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200