Nearly 80 years ago, the Nebraska State Patrol began using aircraft to perform duties in the interest of public safety. It was an aerial evolution that continues today. Nebraska Public Media’s Dale Johnson sat down with Patrol Col. John Bolduc and Trooper pilot Josh Emhovick to talk about NSP’s Aviation Division.
Dale Johnson: 1946 was the year the first airplane was flown by a member of the Nebraska State Patrol to observe traffic on highways. Back then, private aircraft from private citizens were used, and an NSP official would fly with them. I understand that it was only used a few times back then that it marked the beginning of a growing NSP program that today includes two helicopters, two Cessna fixed wing aircraft and a Piper Super Cub. Colonel Bolduc, true, an NSP aircraft is in the air almost every day?
John Bolduc: Just about every day, weather permitting. It's a great asset for the state of Nebraska. It really is a value-add to the troopers and other law enforcement officers on the ground. And we are using it both in proactive missions, such as in traffic enforcement selectives, we call them, where we're trying to address a specific problem. And then we're also using it on routine patrol and certainly in emergency situations. We just think recently of the floods that we had this year, the floods that we had in 2019, the wildfires we had across the state in the last few years, and of course, in apprehending dangerous criminals who have escaped, fled or committed a crime and have gone on the run, so to speak, not to mention search and rescue. We've had several instances where folks have become disoriented or lost and have wandered into the woods, a swamp or cornfield, and using the technology on today's aircraft, we are effectively able to locate them and direct ground resources in, so really there’s a great variety of uses for these aircraft, and we have some outstanding, well trained pilots to operate those aircraft in all kinds of environments. It is not uncommon to have that aircraft up on nearly a daily basis.
Johnson: Turning to the pilot in the room, Josh, inside this aircraft, everything from forward looking infrared, from what I understand, to air to ground voice and video communications. Detail the technology that Colonel Bolduc was talking about inside these crafts.
Josh Emhovick: The forward looking infrared (FLIR) has three different imagers on it, daytime imagers, so we can do like a steady zoom or a jump zoom. So when we're flying to a call, depending on our altitude and the location and area that we're headed to, we can actually start looking and searching the area probably 10 miles away. So before you see us or hear us, we're already looking and we can see you. The FLIR has the capability of doing like white hot and black hot. So it takes the temperature from the ground, and it draws a picture on the screen. So if somebody is in a field on a cold night, they will stand out and glow like a snowman. We can find them.
Johnson: I mentioned two helicopters. What are the advantages of the helicopters, Josh?
Emhovick: The helicopter is a lot more versatile. We can pick up and land almost anywhere. We can pick up passengers in it from bad locations, like if there's a flood and somebody stranded, we can get down in areas that an airplane cannot. When we're over a metro area we can make tighter orbits and maintain visual of, you know, suspects or whatever we're doing. The airplane, we need to have larger orbits. We need to be higher the versatility of the helicopter in the view for what we can see from the pilot aspect and the tactical Flight Officer in the airplane, they're sitting in a back and they have a big station. They have to look at the screen. They can’t look out the airplane and see as much as where in the helicopter they can just turn their head and look out the window and get a better overview of where officers are coming from, where they need to go.
Johnson: Obviously, the situations with floods and wildfires, you need to do your job and hover over the top. That's where the helicopters come in, Colonel.
Bolduc: Absolutely, we can see things that we aren't able to see on the ground or even access. If you remember the floods of 2019, the entire city of Fremont was an island. It was surrounded by water. Thankfully, we didn't have any life-threatening medical emergencies during that event, but literally, the only way to get a good view of what was happening in that city was from the air. That ultimately, as the waters receded, helped us identify routes in and out of the city as water receded from the different roads, and we actually had transportation units from the county, city and state, plow mud and dirt and trees and things off of the road that was identified from the air, so we could get resources into the several 1,000 people stranded in the city.
Johnson: Talk about the tactical flight officer program that involves officers from other agencies that fly with NSP.
Bolduc: Great, yeah, that's a relatively new program for our agency. We actually modeled it off of the Ohio State Highway Patrol partnership with the City of Dayton, Ohio, and oftentimes we're flying missions in support of other agencies. So in this regard, there's skin in the game, so to speak, for our local partners, like Lincoln Police Department, Lancaster Sheriff's Office, other agencies across the state who are part of the program where we will train their tactical flight officers to ride in the aircraft with us. They'll operate the cameras. They'll be a resource with local knowledge of the local terrain, geography, the community. And really, it's a value add. It saves the state patrol a resource. They're paying for their tactical flight officers’ time, and it's one less trooper that we need to take off the street to assist in that mission,
Johnson: Colonel, thank you very much for coming in and talking about the aviation program with NSP. Josh, thank you for landing here and spending some time with us. Col. John Bolduc, joined by trooper pilot, Josh Emhovich. I'm Dale Johnson Nebraska, Public Media News.