HELICOPTERS IN COBURG

You begin to notice more things when you’re stuck at home; the usual time the post ar­rives, where the light is best during the day, how long it takes for cabbage to grow — and how many helicopters seem to pass overhead in Coburg. Maybe you’re asking yourself: Am I just becoming grouchy and paranoid? Am I really going to contact the Victoria Police ‘Air Wing’ to say: “Why are there so many choppers in Coburg? Before you say I’m paranoid I have a list of all the times and places I’ve seen a chopper this month”? Is this all just an incidence of me being home more? Yes. Yes…and no!

In the last two months the Air Wing of the Victoria Police increased their capacity. While there used to only be 3 helicopters, there are now 7.

These choppers are deployed from Essen­don Airport and, according to Victoria Police, pa­trol Melbourne indiscriminately, assisting police units on the ground. We are told that even though the choppers may be hovering above Coburg, they can see 10kms away and so may be focusing on some other suburb.

Whilst it’s easy to think of helicopters as being fairly innocuous and novel parts of the po­lice force, in reality police helicopters primarily assist ground units to make them more efficient in their operations. They travel quickly and can rapidly deploy police. Increasing helicopter fund­ing should therefore not escape critiques of police funding more generally. We want and need to fight for a system of safety that provides assistance and reassurance to everyone in our society. At present we have a notoriously violent police system that inappropriately defaults to using brute force to manage situations, particularly when dealing with marginalised and vulnerable people, creating un­safe environments for people interacting with the police, and deterring people from seeking help.

Those helicopters should be given to Am­bulance Victoria, who should be the ones respon­sible for the search and rescue work currently be­ing conducted by the police. Health professionals are more necessary and useful in a rescue mission than police, afterall.

By ES