US Police Pilot
All...
I was doing some research on hoist training and came across this website and thread, which I found very interesting. I noticed that most (if not all) postings were from the UK, or at least from across the pond. I would agree that we in the US have some different methods and philosophies about airborne law enforcement work (including SAR) but I think the primary issue is training for the missions you perform. The decision on whether or not an agency needs to perform a specific type of mission really depends on that agency's tasking, and/or the availability of other resources.
If we take a look at hurricane Katrina, it's pretty clear that the hoist-equipped aircraft were the ones that saved lives. Those aircrews were far more effective at rescuing people than the aircrews who did not have hoists. When I spoke with the Louisianny State Police pilots, their biggest dissapointment was that they did not have hoist-equipped helicopters, and they were limited to flying around and looking for victims who could only be rescued by aircrews that had hoists. Thousands of hoist missions were conducted and to my knowledge, there was not a single hoist-related incident or accident.
As a SAR wetcrewman and hoist operator in the Navy (25 years ago) I learned the value of hoist operations. When I joined the police department and started flying light helicopters (18 years ago) our SAR work was limited to one-skid landings and other relatively high-risk techniques. They always scared the heck out of me - but they were the only game in town. The smart folks (and fortunately we have several of them) turned the missions down.
We just replaced all of our aircraft with AS350 B3s equipped with a hoist. A hoist does require significant initial training and consistent recurrent training, but hoists enable SAR crews to expand their mission capabilities. It makes little or no sense to me to have a 2.5 million dollar aircraft, which was designed to assist officers and to enhance public safety, to be flying around in circles watching someone drown without the ability to save them. (This actually happened to us.)
Yes, it takes significant initial training and consistent recurrent training to remain proficient at hoist operations, but that's the case with every piece of equipment in the aircraft. In my experience, most airborne law enforcement units in the US don't have hoists because their aircraft are operating at or near their max gross weight with all the police equipment. But as they replace those aircraft, many agencies (like us) are acquiring more powerful aircraft, and many are acquiring hoists.
I love this website!
Regards
Kevin Means
Training Officer, San Diego Police Air Support Unit