The Minnesota State Patrol Helicopter is available for use 24 hours per day. Saint Paul Police Department officers are encouraged to make use of this valuable asset. The state patrol helicopter can communicate directly with our squads and dispatchers if the dispatcher patches the appropriate Saint Paul main channel into an available regional talkgroup (i.e. LTAC, STAC, etc.). State patrol helicopter pilots will not become directly involved in a Saint Paul incident unless requested to do so by Saint Paul Police Department personnel.
An official request for assistance should be made by a supervisor monitoring the incident. This request may be made to the dispatcher or the Ramsey County Emergency Communication Center (RCECC) Shift Supervisor. The dispatcher may attempt to contact state patrol dispatch on METCOM, or a phone call may be made to the state patrol dispatch center to ask if the helicopter is available to assist. Provided the helicopter is able to assist, the RCECC Shift Supervisor will assign an available talkgroup for the incident. The dispatcher or RCECC Shift Supervisor will coordinate with the state patrol as to which talkgroup to communicate with Saint Paul officers.
A brief description of the type of incident and the location should be given to the state patrol dispatcher for relay to the pilot. Once radio contact is established with the state patrol helicopter pilot, the incident supervisor will coordinate the radio traffic between all units involved.
If there is no pilot on duty when the state patrol dispatcher is called, the requesting supervisor shall be notified. S/he will then decide if the situation warrants requesting that a pilot be called in to duty. [Redacted].
If a request is made for the state patrol helicopter and one is not available, this information should be included in the incident report.
As soon as the supervisor in charge of the incident determines that the helicopter is no longer needed, s/he will notify the RCECC Shift Supervisor or dispatcher and the state patrol helicopter pilot immediately so the helicopter unit can be released from the incident and the talkgroup used can be put back in service.
Supervisors and officers should know that the state patrol helicopter pilot will activate the helicopter's video camera once they become involved in any incident. These tapes are generally kept for seven days unless there is something of evidentiary value on the tape. If a copy of a tape is needed a supervisor should make the request by contacting the State Patrol Aviation Officer.
Revised July 1, 2011