CLEVELAND — Cleveland City Council has approved spending millions of dollars to get helicopters back in the sky for the police department, after months of them being out of service.
“We’ve had to rely on other departments, and we need our helicopters here in Cleveland,” said Council President Blaine Griffin. “I don’t have the accurate dates, but I know they’ve been out for quite some time.”
On Monday, council passed legislation approving $3,590,997 in taxpayer money to bring two helicopters back into service for the Cleveland Division of Police.
“It’s getting them up and running. Complete overhaul, from what I understand. It’s almost like stripping them down to the bare bones and redoing them all over again,” Griffin said.
In recent weeks, we’ve seen other aircraft from the Ohio State Highway Patrol in action over the city of Cleveland, assisting in pursuits, arrests and warning officers on the ground.
“Our aviation section is used almost daily,” said Sgt. Bridget Matt with OSHP. “It allows them to monitor the suspect vehicle overhead without having any ground units actually pursuing that vehicle. So, it’s much safer for our officers involved as well as the rest of the motoring public, that someone is not behind that car chasing them.”
Sgt. Matt said in August, OSHP Aviation logged 369 flight hours and 119 missions. 65% of those missions involved assisting 56 outside agencies, like the Cleveland Division of Police during the surge initiative.
“As far as I’m concerned, I’d like to see [the helicopters] up yesterday,” Griffin said.
Monday’s vote wasn’t the first time the council passed legislation to fix the helicopters. In March 2022, Cleveland City Council approved money to do the same thing. The repairs never happened because the company the city chose went bankrupt.
The $3.5 million price tag on this latest move is nearly $200,000 more than the original legislation, according to the city.
“What happens is prices go up, materials go up and the market changes. That’s the cost of doing business in this environment right now, which is why it’s so critical that when we pass things, we see them get implemented as fast as possible because if that market adjusts or changes we have to do change orders like we did yesterday,” Griffin said.
3News reached out to CDP to ask about the new helicopters, how long they’ve been grounded, when they will be ready for use and how they plan to use them. The department sent this statement in response:
"Our Aviation Unit plays an important supplemental role to our ground patrols, which allow for the efficient and safe apprehension of individuals involved in criminal activity. The Department of Public Safety is looking forward to providing our officers with the necessary technology and resources to keep our communities safe.”