US Customs and Border Protection and inland events

Like many large-scale public sporting events, the 8–11 February 2024 Super Bowl LVIII (SBLVIII) required an interagency security effort. It was designated as a Special Event Assessment Rating (SEAR) Level 1 event by the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Operations Coordination, which applies a SEAR rating to all submitted events as a risk-based methodology based on the threat, vulnerability, and consequences of each event, as Douglas Murray, Director of Air and Marine Operations (AMO) Yuma (Arizona) Air Branch, explained.

“A SEAR Level 1 event is classified as a significant event with national and/or international importance that requires extensive federal interagency support,” said Murray, who served as the designated lead for the deployment and operations of both personnel and equipment to safeguard the area in and around the Allegiant Stadium, Las Vegas.

Additionally, he said, the AMO Center based in Riverside, California, has teams who conducted airspace security and coordinated command and control with partner law enforcement organizations. “AMO aircrews were critical to the success of Super Bowl security operations,” said Murray. “Aircrews and sensor operators patrolled the airspace and coordinated with a vast network of law enforcement partners to ensure the safety of the public. The AMO air deployment package consisted of two Yuma Air Branch Airbus AS350 ‘A-Star’ helicopter crews and three UH-60 Black Hawk crews for SBLVIII.”

The A-Star crews conducted aerial security and delivered video downlinks to law enforcement officials on the ground that enhanced awareness, enabling interagency partners to more effectively respond to incidents, Murray added. “UH-60 crews were integral to the establishment of a Temporary Flight Restriction zone around Allegiant Stadium,” he said. “Aircrews remained ready to conduct air intercept if the situation required such a response. AMO aircrews were the ‘eyes in the sky’, bolstering intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance flight operations leading up to and during the Super Bowl events.”

Preventing illegal entry into the USA

Multiple ways in which AMO is protecting the USA from illegal entry includes AMO’s mission to safeguard the country by anticipating and confronting security threats through aviation and maritime law enforcement expertise, innovative capabilities, and partnerships at the border and beyond, Murray said. “Our asset fleet is vast and is composed of 240 aircraft and 300 marine vessels,” he said. “Our organization has roughly 1,800 employees in teams that operate in 77 locations throughout the USA, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands. We employ highly skilled agents, officers, and mission support personnel, and our organization operates sophisticated technology.” On average, AMO Air Interdiction Agents, who pilot rotor- and fixed-wing assets, fly approximately 100,000 hours yearly, while the marine crews can expect to float around 40,000 hours a year, he further explained.

The Yuma Air Branch: a critical cog in homeland protection

The Branch’s area of responsibility includes an extreme and vast desert environment, and a fully trained emergency medical team, which makes Yuma Air Branch a critical cog in homeland protection and accentuates AMO’s humanitarian rescue and lifesaving mission

Yuma Air Branch is part of AMO’s Southwest Region, which has an area of operations that spans more than 2,000 miles of linear border. AMO Southwest Region is responsible for conducting federal aviation, maritime, and land law enforcement operations within Nevada, Oklahoma, and the four southwest border states of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California. The region includes the coastal waters off southern California and Texas and some of the most inhospitable desert and mountain terrain in the USA. “Yuma Air Branch, the organization that I lead within AMO, employs the Airbus AS350 ‘A-Star’ to conduct law enforcement missions on the border,” said Murray. “The Yuma Air Branch is responsible for over 250,000 square miles across Arizona, Nevada and California, which includes 230 miles of the US border in California and Arizona.”

Despite being a relatively small branch, it carefully balances the heavy workload of conducting operational missions in collaboration with the El Centro, Yuma, and Tucson Border Patrol Sectors as well as multiple federal, state, and local law enforcement partners, while simultaneously covering National Special Security Events and contingency operations, he added.

“The Yuma Air Branch’s unique ability to cultivate relationships with federal and local partners has proven a critical force multiplier in achieving border security,” said Murray. “The Branch’s area of responsibility includes an extreme and vast desert environment, and a fully trained emergency medical team [one paramedic, three emergency medical technicians], which makes Yuma Air Branch a critical cog in homeland protection and accentuates AMO’s humanitarian rescue and lifesaving mission.”

According to Murray, in 2023, with its partners, the Yuma Air Branch carried out enforcement operations that resulted in 43 arrests and 2,802 apprehensions; and the seizure of 2,209lbs of narcotics, $281,000 currency, and 53 weapons.

The future vision and strategy

In preparation for the future through its Vision and Strategy 2030, AMO is committed to standardizing training, equipment and technology in order to maintain a capable, flexible fleet and workforce that can quickly respond to shifting threats with minimal changes in training, and to aggressively pursuing the standardization of platforms, training, technology and infrastructure. AMO’s commitment to standardizing and modernizing its aviation fleet is represented by the recent acquisition of its 29th multi-role enforcement aircraft (MEA). AMO has also acquired additional A-Star and UH-60 helicopters to achieve this goal. 

The MEA is equipped with state-of-the-art sensor equipment for detection, tracking and surveillance operations that require standoff capability to avoid counter-detection, and enhances law enforcement and emergency efforts with a reconfigurable cabin that can rapidly adapt to carry cargo and personnel.

Employing a crew of four – two pilots and two sensor operators – the MEA fleet has already replaced the Piper PA-42 and will eventually replace the King Air C-12C and B200 fleet currently in inventory. Standardizing aircraft models in inventory will further streamline AMO aircrew interoperability and maintenance programming.

Metropolitan Nashville: a growing population

The skyline of Nashville, Tennessee, is very different now than a decade ago following rapid growth in the city’s population, in which the Metropolitan Nashville area increased from 1.08 million in 2014 to 1.33 million.

Lieutenant Michael E Baujan, Metropolitan Nashville Police Department (MNPD) Special Operations Division, Aviation Section, is a retired US Army Aviation Safety Officer/UH-60 pilot who joined the PD in 2011 as a police officer/pilot, then was promoted to Detective, Criminal Investigations followed by Police Sergeant and, most recently, Police Lieutenant. He said: “The MNPD Aviation Unit is responsible for 550 square miles and, while the Department has not grown a lot, we’re trying to catch up to meet the needs of the population by adding more personnel and equipment.”

More people in a city also means more crime. “Our flight hours have increased along with the crime rates,” said Baujan. “We fly all hours of the night to serve as ‘eyes on the ground’ to support our patrol units. However, our ground personnel have not grown with the exponential growth of our population, which means patrol is shorthanded,” he said. Aerial law enforcement has become a necessity now more than a luxury, he said.

We serve as a ‘force multiplier’ for our ground units that followed our lead in the air

In a recent event, while the MNPD Ground Units were in heavy pursuit of a suspect wanted for aggravated assault as a violent offender involved in 30 different robberies, the Aviation Unit set up a 2,000–3,000ft surveillance, said Baujan. “We serve as a ‘force multiplier’ for our ground units that followed our lead in the air,” he explained.

Sergeant Henry Particelli, MNPD Special Operations Division/Aviation Section, oversees the Department’s Tactical Flight Officer (TFO) group/program assisted with the recently instituted in-house TFO training program. “We’ve been able to train up a few TFOs to pilots, which has greatly helped,” he said.

Last April, the St Jude Rock ’n’ Roll Nashville Marathon generated a turnout of about 24,000 runners in addition to an approximate crowd size of 200,000, which demanded extreme aerial and patrol coverage, said Particelli. “In the planning phase, the Aviation Section flew the perimeter of the 26.2-mile course around the downtown area,” he said. “Air 1 provided aerial overwatch during much of the event, to ensure the safety of all participants. As an extra precaution, a SWAT operator rode along in the aircraft to provide an airborne use of force (AUF) capability, which allows for threat neutralization from the air, providing for enhanced safety of officers and citizens on the ground.” Particelli said the Aviation Section and SWAT Units train for AUF on a quarterly basis.

New and coming assets: aerial, radio comms and hangar

In 2022, the MNPD Aviation Section received two new Airbus H125 helicopters and is hoping to obtain a third, said Particelli. “The installed WESCAM MX-10 camera in the H125 is so sharp it can read a license plate from several thousand feet,” he said. “With the Axnes communication system, ground control can communicate with the aircraft crew in line of sight, making SWAT and hoist operations much safer. Provisions are in place which would transmit a live video downlink to designated personnel on the ground.”

The Department also has two Bell OH-58A/Cs, obtained through the military surplus program, which are primarily used for training, said Particelli. “Five years down the road, we’d like to obtain fixed-wing aircraft,” he said. “Less fuel and less maintenance.” The Aviation Unit is breaking ground for a new hangar facility with more square footage, which will be located at the John Tune Airport, said Particelli. It’s all about increasing assets and resources to meet the increasing demands of a growing population.

State and federal partners: Collier County Aviation Unit

‘Service to others before self’ is the value statement of the Aviation Unit, Collier County Sheriff’s Office, Naples, Florida, which collaborates with state and federal partners including Naples police and emergency services, Marco Island Police Department, Florida Forest Service, US Customs and Border Protection, US Coast Guard, US Drug Enforcement Administration, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, and Florida Highway Patrol. They effectively manage three search and rescue (SAR) units within marine, agricultural and aviation, and two subunits (dive and mountain teams) within Collier County, ultimately bringing highly experienced teams that cross-train in a seamless environment, which is critical to navigating hurricanes, wildfires, protest marches, millions of vacationers, and protecting marine life in the Everglades National Park while also saving human lives.

Bringing together three SAR units is a huge part of our success

“The Naples Police Department is one of two PDs within Collier County, each with about 40 team members, while our Aviation Unit supports the large operations,” said SAR Unit Lieutenant Dennis De Rienzo, Ret. US Marine Corps. “Most people know about our highly populated beaches, Naples and Marco Island, but we also cover farming/agriculture, which is a $2.5 billion industry, a marine environment, as well as the National Everglades,” he said.

In 2019, Collier County saw a record 1.9 million vacationers, an increase of almost 6% from the previous year. Keeping up with the 24/7 operations of such diverse environmental challenges and an expansive landmass – equal in area to the state of Delaware at 2,000 square miles – demands greater resources and assets, in a county where “lots of land mass means lots of unforeseen emergencies”, said De Rienzo. “Bringing together three SAR units is a huge part of our success,” he said. “We can conduct rescues in minutes versus hours.”

Case in point, De Rienzo said the three units rescued three hikers in the Everglades who were not prepared for the intense combination of humidity and heat, and who were too dehydrated to call 911, but his unit was able to conduct a hoist rescue to deliver the victims to the emergency medical services within minutes.

Firefighting partners: state forest services

Firefighting is also a huge challenge for the agency in a hot and humid climate that demands great respect for navigating Mother Nature’s multiple personalities.

“After the heavy rains from November, the February–June fire season also demands collaborative teaming to tackle nature’s realities, such as last June’s El Niño that generated more rain the following winter which, in turn, decreased humidity and then increased fires from the trees as fuel,” De Rienzo said.

The state forest services and Collier County have collaborated in a joint training program, which has strengthened the Aviation Unit’s partnership with the state’s forest specialists, who are “second to none”, according to De Rienzo. “Working hand in hand with the state’s Forest Service team provides communications access to their command channels and air frequencies with air assets in the field,” he said. “We have a great partnership with the Florida Forest Service and have worked together extensively in recent years.”

“In 2023, we partnered on fire suppression and aerial coordination to battle wildfires,” said Will Lucas, Forest Aviation Officer, National Forests, Florida. “In most cases, the state agency will support local municipal resources, so it’s a collaborative approach overall.”

Our focus is on making sound, science-based, risk-informed decisions

The Forest Service works with states, tribes and other partners to address wildfire risks to critical infrastructure, protect communities and make forests more resilient, he said. “Where wildfires threaten lives, communities and homes, we actively use all available strategies and tools to suppress those fires and their growth. Our focus is on making sound, science-based, risk-informed decisions.”

Integrating assets, such as the incident management team’s IT operations, that respond to calls, service interruptions, and firefighting commands with local fire department channels provides direct line comms during firefighting missions. This proved crucial when, for example, “a state Forest Service employee on a tractor that had a maintenance issue was trapped inside a large wall of fire”, added Lucas.

“The Forest Service crews secured a perimeter while my crew chief moved at speed sustaining 150-degree temperatures,” De Rienzo explained. “By dropping water around [the stranded employee] while [he was] on the tractor and keeping him safe until additional personnel arrived, our collaborative rescue was successful. “All of them deserve medals,” he said. “It’s just part of the job and we do it to help our partners to make our community and industry safer.”

Tactical Flight Officers: combining aviation and law enforcement

As with all law enforcement agencies, short staff is a reality. “It’s partly a result of the national staff shortage within aviation law enforcement and the 24/7 demands in which SAR units need to be ready, experienced and trained, and able to testify in court,” De Rienzo explained. “One solution is to train from within – the law enforcement officers in aviation.” The solution-to-success story is the agency’s new TFOs in its aviation program. “Our TFO members serve other positions as an alternative while committing to the success of the SAR unit,” said De Rienzo. “TFOs want to do the job and they do it very well.” Recruiting young aviators to law enforcement remains a challenge, however.

Future needs: increasing fleet and pay

“Young people in aviation just starting out on their careers today steer away from aviation law enforcement, knowing they just spent a lot of money to become aviators, and need a higher salary,” De Rienzo said. “But the low pay is an industry-wide aviation law enforcement issue.” Fortunately, agencies are starting to understand the need to increase salaries within aviation law

Fortunately, agencies are starting to understand the need to increase salaries within aviation law enforcement

enforcement, he added. The need to increase the agency’s aerial assets is also top of mind. “We currently have a military surplus 1971 OH-58, a 1969 UH-1 ‘Huey’, and a Bell 429 received two years ago, as well as a Cessna 182, which was received 15 years ago,” he said. A big part of growing the agency’s success is dependent upon a larger fleet with one rotor-wing and one larger fixed-wing capability for increasing speed and safety to cover the extensive geography and increasing population changes, De Rienzo explained.

“Since Covid-19, Naples is not the quiet city it once was,” he added. “The agency’s new technology and the ability to modify capabilities using ‘the latest and the greatest’ have been a great asset.” De Rienzo said the agency recently installed a WESCAM MX-15 camera – “adding to our MX-10s – to improve real-time [data transmission] for day and night missions using infrared and new mapping technology, which has tremendously improved our real-time 24/7 missions”. “As a case in point, when the agency successfully managed a protest march in 2020, we were able to downlink data to the ‘Rock’ – our real-time operations command center – where the command could directly see what’s going on with the protest,” he explained. “The capabilities within our real-time ops center are second to none,” said De Rienzo. “As always, we’re doing our best to keep up with the changes and the challenges.”