For almost 25 years, Edmonton Police Service’s (EPS’s) Flight Operations Unit has been policing the skies of Edmonton in the Canadian province of Alberta. Established in 2001 with the leasing of a single EC120, the service now operates two H125s – purchased in 2017 and 2020 – and one fixed-wing aircraft from a base in Villeneuve, approximately 20km outside the city.

“We used to be based right in the city at Edmonton Municipal Airport,” explained Sergeant Curtis Rakievich. “But that closed down some years ago [2013], and our options were either basing ourselves out of the international airport, or the smaller regional airport – and in the end we ended up going with the regional airport.

“We also have our remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS) and drone operation based out of here,” he added.

Policing from above

The primary objective of the Flight Operations Unit’s helicopters is to provide aerial support to EPS’s operations within Edmonton, offering a fast response capable over a large area – something that is beneficial, Rakievich said, given the city’s wide geographical area. “The population is about a million within the city and metro area, and the city’s pretty spread out geographically,” he explained. “Not dense, but spread out.”

By contrast, said Rakievich, while EPS’s fixed-wing aircraft does respond to operational calls, “it is primarily focused on investigative work. And that’s more proactive – they’ll be assigned work from specific investigative areas.” One reason for this is the longer flight duration and higher altitude that the fixed-wing offers.

However, while the two aircraft types may largely serve different functions, Rakievich said that since taking delivery of EPS’s latest plane last year, there has been a greater level of interoperability between them. This is primarily due to the fixed-wing being outfitted with the “same mission equipment as the helicopters”.

Examples of mission equipment fitted to EPS aircraft include L3Harris WESCAM MX-10 camera systems – both visible light and infrared; TrakkaBeam A800 searchlights; loudspeaker systems; and microwave downlinks.

Additionally, “our night vision goggles (NVGs) are provided by Night Flight Concepts, based out of Texas”. Rakievich explained that while EPS currently has to send its NVGs away every 180 days to receive regular required maintenance, the service was currently working with the Calgary Police Service to share their NVG maintenance equipment, and to receive training to use it.

Supporting the RCMP

The unit also provides regional support to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) within approximately a 100km radius of Edmonton, supplementing the RCMP’s own air services section. However, Rakievich explained, “they don’t patrol regularly – they’re a response unit”.

The EPS’s helicopters attended just over 2,200 callouts in 2023, as well as assisting the RCMP 130 times

In total, the EPS’s helicopters attended just over 2,200 callouts in 2023, as well as assisting the RCMP 130 times. Rakievich credits the growing demand for regional support from EPS’s services to the upgrade of its rotorcraft from the H120 to the H125.

“We’ve got longer duration, better mission gear – even our night vision program is a lot more refined, and we’re able to work in the dark more effectively,” he said. “We fly, just on the helicopter side, about 1,500 hours a year between the two aircraft.”

By contrast, the fixed-wing aircraft will respond to “dozens of calls per year – especially in relation to public safety, vehicle pursuits, searching for missing persons, or suspects evading arrest,” he added.

Three layers of support

One of the biggest developments to have changed how the unit provides aerial support in recent years is the emergence of drones – both as a tool and as a hazard.

Rakievich explained that, particularly in the past two years, drones have come to the forefront of EPS’s flight operations, with the creation of the service’s first RPAS Coordinator role, and the acquisition of 30 different drones of various types.

This, he said, includes “everything ranging from large, tethered drones with infrared, high-zoom capabilities to essentially DJI Mini 2s and Mini 3s for quick deployment and ‘inside’ missions”.

We deploy drones just about on a daily level. We’ve had a ton of success with suspect apprehensions, finding missing persons, and gathering evidence

“It has exploded in EPS … we now have 24 uniformed officers who are trained to the Transport Canada advanced operator level,” he added. “We deploy drones just about on a daily level. We’ve had a ton of success with suspect apprehensions, finding missing persons, and gathering evidence. We’ve found that in flight operations, we now have three layers of support – drones, helicopter, and fixed-wing – all starting to work in concert with each other.”

Despite his confidence in the effectiveness of drones in policing, Rakievich feels that there is still a place for traditional crewed aerial support. In particular, he notes that current aviation regulations in Canada restrict what drones can be used for.

“We are still limited to generally operating within visual line of sight,” he explained. “We have a certificate that allows us to operate somewhat beyond that – but with an additional person spotting for us.”

He concluded that while EPS has explored the concept of ‘drones as first responder’, and while he can see the situation changing “at some point in the future”, for now these regulations prohibit that kind of usage.

Rakievich added that in addition to operating its own remotely piloted fleet, EPS is exploring the use of drone detection technologies, “because everyone else out there” is also flying drones.

“We’ve found that when there’s a major event, there’s also problems with private operators using drones over them,” he explained. “We’re starting to research [this], so we can not only educate the public on safe drone usage, but also do enforcement on illegal drone operations. That’s going to be more of a longer-term project, but we’re working on that.”

Battling weather and avoiding the airport

Flying missions in Edmonton presents challenges for the unit – in particular, the cold Canadian winters can restrict flight operations significantly due to the risk of icing.

Rakievich explained that such issues can occur “anywhere from December to March”.

“Our unit limitation is that if it’s -30°C or greater, we are non-operational,” he continued. “And even then, we always watch out, because you can run into icing situations even when you’re still within that limitation – so our pilots are constantly monitoring the weather.”

The presence of Edmonton International Airport means that the unit has to take into account a dense patch of commercial air traffic

Other operational minimums include a minimum visibility of 3NM, and a 1,000ft flight ceiling. “Even when we’re on goggles and some of our pilots are night and instrument flight rules (IFR) rated, we still operate within those limits. We just find that those are good numbers so we can avoid any instrument meteorological conditions (IMC) proactively.”

The city itself presents further challenges. The presence of Edmonton International Airport means that the unit has to take into account a dense patch of commercial air traffic. “We don’t typically patrol that part of the city – we just respond and then try to make quick of whatever call we’re on, because air traffic control will be holding up traffic so we can deal with the situation,” he said.

Crew hiring and training

EPS currently maintains three full-time aircrews, comprising both pilots and tactical flight officers (TFOs).

While EPS’s Flight Operations Unit is predominantly made up of sworn police officers, the service is also open to recruiting civilian pilots where necessary to ensure a degree of flexibility. The service also maintains a pool of relief pilots who can be called in.

“If we can develop or have pilots in-house that are already sworn members, we’re going to continue to draw from that,” said Rakievich, “but there will be times where we run into gaps where we don’t have a pilot available or one in the system, so we will look externally.”

By contrast, all of EPS’s TFOs are exclusively drawn from among EPS’s pool of officers, with no civilian input.

We have a pretty robust training for TFOs in-house where we can draw sworn members in and train them, and have them be the most operationally effective person to use the mission equipment and deal with events

“That is the one area where we likely wouldn’t hybridize the program,” Rakievich added. “We have a pretty robust training [for TFOs] in-house where we can draw sworn members in and train them, and have them be the most operationally effective person to use the mission equipment and deal with events.”

While EPS used to maintain a greater distinction between crew for fixed-wing and rotary, TFOs are now “cross-trained” to be able to work in both fields, in part because of work to standardize equipment across both aircraft types.

The minimum standard of training required by EPS for its pilots is a commercial pilot’s license. Beyond this, if a potential pilot doesn’t already have a rating or type, the police service will arrange for them to acquire the necessary certification.

On top of this, EPS pilots receive annual emergency training. Training for rotorcraft pilots is done through Canadian Helicopters’ Topflight school in Penticton, British Columbia, and covers daytime/nighttime autorotations, confined area landings, and NVGs.

For fixed-wing pilots, training is provided by Arizona-based firm Aviation Performance Solutions, and covers upset prevention and recovery, egress, and emergency procedures.