Harford Sheriff Ends Aviation Program

A little more than a year after the former sheriff got an aviation program off the ground, current Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler is discontinuing the initiative.

The program is coming to an end due to safety, cost and usage, Gahler told his command staff and county officials on Tuesday, July 7.

“When assessing any program, I use two questions to guide my decision making process: Does this program have a direct impact on public safety and should the taxpayers of Harford County have to pay for this service?” Gahler said.

“After a complete assessment and review of the information presented...the answer to both questions is ‘no,’” he said.

Over a 12-month period, the helicopter went on 118 law enforcement-related missions and of those, directly assisted in 13, according to a statement from the Harford County Sheriff’s Office.

Former Sheriff Jesse Bane had said in December 2013 when he rolled out the aviation program that it would go on 25 missions annually.

One reason the helicopter was deployed, Bane said, was to provide aviation service when other jurisdictions’ helicopters may be tied up. Other agencies’ helicopters were available during all but one of the missions in the 12-month period reviewed this year, the sheriff’s office reported Tuesday, meaning there was a duplication of service.

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In addition to questioning its efficacy, Gahler temporarily placed the aviation unit out of commission in March to allow for a safety review.

Correcting the safety issues would cost more than $776,000 and require putting some officers in the aviation unit full-time, contrary to his commitment to putting more deputies on the street, he said.

“The need for the aviation program would fall behind the issues we are currently facing, including overdue pay increases for deputies; the need to hire 36 correctional deputies to staff the vacant $31 million Detention Center expansion; a street-level drug unit; and the possible $1 million operating expense of outfitting all deputies with body cameras,” Gahler said.

The sheriff’s office responds to almost 161,000 calls for service annually, meaning the helicopter was deployed in .07 percent of all calls, according to a statement from the sheriff’s office.

When Bane introduced the aviation program in 2013, he said the department acquired the helicopter at no cost through the Department of Homeland Security, and estimated that the operating cost for the helicopter would be $125,000 a year but it would not cost taxpayers because drug seizures would pay for it.

This was a “gross underestimation,” according to Gahler, who said the cost was currently projected to be $698,879.

The current sheriff said he also had other ideas for how the money from drug seizures should be used.

Said Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler: “...the use of drug forfeiture money should not be used for a recurring operational expense, but instead it should be reinvested to end the heroin epidemic that is plaguing the communities of Harford County.”