I flew intensive Police Operations in the early 90s. My first shift in Newcastle we had 7 vehicle pursuits each with a different story. The first ended in a fatal fireball in pennwell and the Scrote bought the farm!
At that time, tennagers were inadvertently using stolen cars as deadly weapons. It was a countrywide epidemic. We did relatively few mispers and like most have posted, they ended up croaked or having a cup of tea. Vehicle theft or Twoccing, was a national epedimeic that threatenened the insurance system and presented intolerable risks to the public and the purps themselves who were, for the most part, very young boys and girls.
It did not take long. Police ASUs appeared all over the country and in a few years we went from a pair of stab binos to the stateoftheart thermal imagery and broadcast quality cameras. These assets killed twoccing stone dead in a few short years. They also greatly improved surveillance capability and this definitely improved crime fighting.
Now police aviation has matured. Twoccing will probably never return as long as The Eye in the Sky is there. The tasty jobs have gone precisely because the Helicopter exists. But take the Helicopter away and see what happens.
For a Misper the Helicopter always adds value even if it does not locate the person. Searching an open area with FLIR often confirms the person is not where they are thought to be and thus efforts are concentrated elsewher.......like the pub or houses where the Helicopter cannot add value.
For me the financial formula must be simple. Decide how much much flying you can afford. Use the helicopter every time there is the slightest chance it might add value to: save a life, prevent harm to the public or fight crime. Review your budget at the end of the year and increase, decrease accordingly.
The helicopters can never be replaced by drones completely. They should remain but they are, as they have always been, victims of their own success.