Modesto Police plan for plane hits turbulence

The Modesto Police Department’s plan to buy an aircraft has been grounded.

The City Council on Tuesday decided not to vote on whether to purchase the aircraft and sent the proposal to two of its committees for public discussions before bringing it back to the council for a vote.

City Manager Jim Holgersson said after the meeting that current and incoming council members and the public have questions about the proposal. The city typically has a major proposal vetted by a council committee before bringing it to the council. That was not done in this case.

“We should have done that but didn’t,” Holgersson said. “We were anxious to move forward on this.”

The committee meetings are public. Holgersson said the proposal will be discussed Dec. 9 by the council’s newest committee, the Safer Neighborhoods Oversight Committee, and then probably in January by the Safety and Communities Committee.

Newcomers Doug Ridenour Sr., Kristi Ah You and Mani Grewal are expected to take their places on the seven-member council at its Nov. 24 meeting.

The Police Department wants to spend as much as $660,000 for a light sport aircraft that seats two and is equipped with a spotlight and high-definition camera with long-range scope and night vision that records what it sees. A city report states it would cost $84,500 to operate annually.

Police Chief Galen Carroll has said the aircraft would be flown by volunteer pilots and police officers who are pilots. He envisions the airplane being in the sky five to six hours a day, five days a week, patrolling the city, conducting traffic enforcement, and helping with crimes in progress and special operations.

“I see this as being a force multiplier,” Carroll said last week. The department’s staffing is at its lowest level in many years, with 219 officers allocated in the current budget year.

The Police Department wants to purchase a Flight Design CTLEi aircraft from Airtime Aviation in Tulsa, Okla. The plane costs $202,030 and the camera costs $332,029, according to the department. The remaining costs include a computer, police radio, training and installation.

The report states the city would pay for the aircraft and its high-tech gear with $194,000 in state asset forfeiture funds; $166,00 from its traffic safety fund; $100,000 in the Supplemental Law Enforcement Services Funds it receives from the state; and $200,000 from the general fund. The report states the $200,000 is from a refund and pending refund from money the city provided the Stanislaus Drug Enforcement Agency.

The asset forfeiture, traffic safety and supplemental funds cannot be used to hire employees.

Carroll has said his department is pursuing this because it is significantly cheaper than paying the Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Department to have its helicopter patrol Modesto 25 to 30 hours a week. The helicopter costs $650 an hour to operate versus $65 for the Flight Design aircraft.

The sheriff’s departments in Kings and Tulare counties have purchased Flight Design CTLEi airplanes. As part of their due diligence, Modesto police met with the Tulare County Sheriff's Department. “Our aviation unit has been a great success, and we feel that the light sport aircraft is a safe and cost-effective platform for law enforcement aviation,” Tulare sheriff's Lt. Rob Schimpf said in an email last week.

Modesto’s proposed purchase comes after voters on Nov. 3 rejected a sales tax increase the city put on the ballot to pay primarily for more public safety after city officials said the city did not have the money to adequately protect Modesto. Measure G was expected to bring in $14 million annually to the city’s roughly $115 million general fund, which primarily pays for police and fire services.

“I know naysayers will say we are wasting money,” Carroll said last week. “But we are trying to protect the city with the limited resources we have. This is another way of being smart with the taxpayers’ money. We have been researching this for close to a year. ... We did not live or die on Measure G. We still have a department to run and a city to protect.”

This story was originally published November 10, 2015 at 9:07 PM with the headline "Modesto Police plan for plane hits turbulence."