In a reversal, city to keep newly purchased police helicopter: 'Foxtrot' aircraft had been threatened by budget proposal

Eighteen months after she voted to approve the purchase of four brand-new helicopters for the Police Department, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's proposed budget called for grounding one of them in a cost-saving move.

But in a just a few days, the administration has reversed course and said it intends to keep the unit collectively known as "Foxtrot" together in flight. Police will likely have to find the projected $1 million in savings somewhere else in their budget.

It's unclear how exactly the cut became part of the proposed budget, which was unveiled last week. City officials stressed that it was always preliminary, and a spokesman for the mayor said that "closer examination determined that the projected savings may not be realistic."

The spokesman, Ryan O'Doherty, said that along with the funding restoration, police will be asked to review the aviation unit for "future efficiencies and potential cost savings."

According to Police Commissioner Anthony W. Batts' chief of staff, Judy Pal, the cut might have grown out of confusion around concerns the new commissioner raised about whether the city had purchased the right kind of helicopters. Pal said Batts had also questioned the wisdom of replacing the entire fleet at the same time.

"Most agencies will spread those purchases out; you replace them on an ad hoc basis as opposed to having to replace all four," Pal said.

The old EC 120 helicopters were purchased all together more than a decade ago, and by 2011 were running dangerously close to their maximum operational life. Police officials claimed one of the helicopters had recorded the highest number of flight hours of any of its kind in the world.

So in September 2011, the city Board of Estimates — of which Rawlings-Blake is a voting member — approved the $9.5 million purchase for the new helicopters from American Eurocopter. They began flying missions a year later with state-of-the-art surveillance tools.

Batts, who was previously a police chief in Long Beach and Oakland, declined to answer questions Thursday about whether the city could have gotten a better deal. City records show that officials did not seek competitive bids for the aircraft.

In the Board of Estimates agenda, purchasing officials wrote that the new EC120B helicopters were the only ones compatible with the parts and maintenance equipment that the city owns, and would eliminate the need to replace the current inventory. The aviation pilots, crew members and maintenance personnel were also qualified to maintain the Eurocopters and would not require retraining.

When it bought the original helicopters in 2001, the city also solicited bids only from the Texas-based American Eurocopter.

The Foxtrot unit has been sidelined before. The entire fleet was grounded in 1998 after a crash in Southwest Baltimore that killed pilot Barry Wood. It did not resume flights until 2001. The city raised money to reconstitute the unit, buy a hangar at Martin State Airport, and have city employees take over maintenance from a contractor.

In 2010, Rawlings-Blake's administration threatened to cut the entire fleet — along with the marine and horseback unit — in a "doomsday" budget that ultimately did not come to pass.

That year, Foxtrot was involved in more than 7,700 calls for service, assisted in 400 arrests, and performed 33,000 "support missions," police said. More recent figures were not available.

Source:  http://www.baltimoresun.com