  On average, the city spent an average of $46.6 million on the program, the audit disclosed. It also found that there is limited oversight or monitoring of the division, its policies and practices and whether the program is in line with the city's safety needs. [...]
  The department has 17 helicopters and over 90 employees. [..] The city operates their helicopter fleet on a nearly "continuous basis" [..] The total translates to more than $2,900 per flight hour. [...]
  Additional findings in the audit disclosed [..] 61% of the flight time was in fact dedicated to low-priority incidents like transportation, general patrols and ceremonial flights — like a fly-by at a local golf tournament, roundtrip transportation of high-ranking LAPD officers between stations and passenger shuttle flights for a "Chili Fly-In."

▲ tclancy 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Hang on, LAPD with limited oversight? Someone bring back Daryl Gates! Man the Ramparts!

▲ throwaway5465 15 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

$5 per person per year then. Or, the price of a can of coke per person per month.

Much of which flows directly back into the local economy through wages spent and maintnance paid.

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0xbadcafebee 8 hours ago | parent | next [-]

That 46 million could be spent on education, transportation, aid for low-income families, the homeless, jobs programs, small business tax breaks, infrastructure renewal, public works, etc. According to the report, not only are they largely not used for anything productive, there's potential harms to both people and the environment. And as many have pointed out, the same work can be done with drones.

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bildung 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

To drive this point further: The one stable causal relastionship relevant here is the one between inequality and crime. Reduce inequality in ways 0xbadcafebee suggested would reduce inequality - though probably not in sizes measureable after a few years.

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mike_d 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

The report is wrong. If you bother to watch LA news you'll see they are used a few times a night to track vehicles from the air. This frees up ground units and avoids high speed chases which saves lives.

It's fun to call this a waste of taxpayer dollars until you watch a carjacked vehicle recovered with kids inside.

	▲	aapoalas 8 minutes ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Are you asserting that the report is lying, and that a majority of the flight hours aren't actually being used for all those mentioned low priority purposes? If so, is your assertion based on the helicopters being used a few times a night per television reports?
	▲	free_bip 6 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Do you really need 17 helicopters and 90 employees for the occasional car chase? This feels wildly over the top. They could do that just fine with one third the resources.

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fn-mote 14 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

You know this is ridiculous, which is why you posted with a throwaway.

Obvious excessive spending should not be shrugged off by dividing the expense by the population of the area.

Obvious excessive costs need to be reined in. Tax money needs to be spent on the highest priorities, which this is not.

	▲	throwaway5465 11 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Some of us always post throwaway.

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tbrownaw 14 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Since when does a can of soda cost less than 50¢?