SKY COPS: STORIES FROM AMERICA'S AIRBORNE POLICE: Stories From America's Airborne Police

by Richard Rosenthal

They climb into action each day with a simple motto: Above All Else. Their weapons: state-of-the-art helicopters that fly at speeds of more than 120 miles per hour, that maneuver expertly between treacherous urban obstacles, that blow by traffic bottlenecks. All across the country, police aviation units swoop down from the skies, relentlessly pursuing the nation;s most dangerous criminals, and performing breathtaking feats of rescue.
A veteran former officer of the New York City Police Aviation Unit has captured these heroes at full tilt for the first time. From new York to L.A., we meet the men and women who plucked terrified victims from the high-rise ruins of the World Trade Center bombing, who responded miraculously to the Avianca air disaster, who foiled a helicopter assault on the White House. Navigating through urban gunfire like the Army choppers of Vietnam, these high-flying cops take crime fighting and rescue heroics to a thrilling new level.

320 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1994

Reviews

[Kristin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fast-paced, fast-reading look into the world of crime fighting from the air. Granted, the book is 25+ years old, so the 'World Trade Center' ruins that are spoken of are from the 1993 bombing and not 9/11, but otherwise I could picture the events of 'Sky Cops' and the methods used by the pilots and officers occurring today. Where aerial policing was a novel idea in 1994, nowadays the news has helicopters ever-present on a crime scene or traffic chase and I suspect that many police departments also do some patrols from the air, as Rosenthal clearly extols the benefits of having choppers and airplanes in the fleet, despite their expense. In rural areas, they can get to a scene much faster than cars that have to follow roads or navigate around forests, mountains, and other obstacles in the landscape. Similarly, in urban areas where the obstacles are man-made, the powerful spotlight on a helicopter can track a criminal trying his hardest to hide among buildings, dumpsters, and the like.
Overall, I enjoyed the diversity of stories related by members of various departments with aviation units to Rosenthal. Most were only a few pages long, making it an easy book to set down if needed and pick up again later, though often I did not want to.

[Mickey Bits · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an interesting read, as it was written before 9/11. It's somewhat compelling to read how things were in a slightly more "innocent" times - and they weren't all that innocent.