Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Buffalo Police are using another tool in tracking down car theft suspects in the city. Helicopters from the Erie County Sheriff's Office and the New York State Police are lending their choppers to help police arrests suspects.
Buffalo Police Commissioner Joe Gramaglia tells WBEN his chief of detectives and special investigations lieutenant who've been looking into stolen cars wanted to start deploying the use of helicopters, for a couple of reasons. "We have a policy on not pursuing stolen vehicles. So the use of the helicopters is much more effective and being able to safely track these down and, and some other motives and trying to deter crimes with them as well," explains Gramaglia.
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Gramaglia says the helicopters have been up for about a week and a half. He says Erie County Sheriff's Office and New York State Police have been lending their copters to help BPD. "Both of them have been excellent partners, providing the use of their helicopters, the attitude has been whatever you need, we're in it together, and we're going to work on it," says Gramaglia.
Gramaglia says he's been hearing from folks wondering about the whirring of the copters on social media, and he doesn't mind. "We want the word out to these thieves, that we have other methods that we're gonna do in a more safe manner. We're up there, and we're already seeing some gains in the data. We're seeing some reductions, anything in the negative column, I will take all day long," notes Gramaglia.
Gramaglia says while police aren't necessarily aiming at thieves in the act, rather using license plate readers, both fixed and mobile, to get instant notifications. "We get instant notifications when a stolen car passes one of our license plate readers, we try to get into a position where we can lay eyes on the vehicle, get it to the helicopter, and then let the helicopter do the work," he explains. He adds a detective is in one of those helicopters as a spotter calling out directions. "Then we try to converge on them. The idea is to get them out of the car, let them go on foot and and then let us do our work. And we'll catch them."
Gramaglia says Buffalo Police are using an auto stop grant from New York state which has been in place for years, using the money in a different ways. This time, he's deploying more of those resources for detectives to come in, on overtime using that grant to to be able to work on these cases. He adds it's not just for stolen car cases. "When our patrol officers are out and they get a priority call. It's great to have those eyes up above us and helping us out and calling out to our officers," says Gramaglia.