Chas:
Yes, but who is paying for it? The operation I saw was a joint venture by 5 communities who had two R-44s in the air Thursday thru Sunday night from 5 pm to 3 am, and one in the air other times. The additional cost for the aircraft (not the officers who were going to be doing something anyway) was paltry and never an issue for the community's budgets.
The salary for an additional professional pilot is not inconsequential, and someone has to pay that.
The helicopter, likewise was only as complicated as it needed to be (a Police version of the R-44) and it did the job very well (FLIR, Searchlight, specialist navigation system, all the radios).
By the way, these folks were very close to the Robinson factory and the aircraft were in the factory quite regularly for periodic maintenance.
The point is that taxpayers are paying for all this stuff -one turbine engine costs more than a police R-44, and salaries aren't small.
This is slightly off topic, but hopefully does shed some light on the subject.