Falcon One-Zero：これまでの歩みと感謝の想い

How would you grade the support services that you got, whether it be from other agencies or from the manufacturer? How would you summarize or grade that support, and how instrumental was that?

All the other agencies have been super helpful. Anytime we've ever had any issues, we talk with other agencies that fly the 505, so that way, "Hey, have you experienced this?" And we go back and forth with them, and they're super helpful.

The administration's been really good with giving us what we need. And then the manufacturer, I've been really pleased. Anytime we've ever had an issue—not only with the maintenance that we go through, the company that we go through, they're fantastic—but the rep, call them, never got a busy signal or phone mail. We always got an answer and somebody looking into it and trying to get us back in action as quickly as possible. We were never down for any extended period of time. So I'm very pleased with that.

Along those same lines, when you pushed this program, and you obviously had that political savviness to educate those politicians on the justifications and the benefits, and then you went into service, did that political push continue? Did it have to continue? And then how did you continue that, the sustain piece?

Yeah, it's got to continue, and I think that to continue that is just by quantifying exactly what you're providing to the community. We're not just spotting something here and there. No, we're backing up officers when they're by themselves, and you may or may not see a result of that in the crime statistics because maybe we showed up and that convinced someone not to do something because they realized that officer's not alone. There's an aircraft overhead. You can't really quantify that other than that we've backed up these officers this many times.

You know what's so amazing about it, so wonderful, is that I can't tell you how many times that I've brought the aircraft back into the hangar at night with these feelings, knowing that what we just accomplished today would not have been possible if we weren't there, whether it had been a pursuit that we chased all the way to the Bay Area and finally caught, or up to the Sierras, up to the mountains, all the way to Sacramento, caught that subject. The guns that we pulled off the street, and the officers that have emailed me later and said, "Hey, thank you for putting that information out," because he was about to pull out when a pursuit was going the wrong way on a one-way street, and he would've got hit head-on had I not put that information out.

Those are the times where you feel like you have superpowers, and you're helping so much, and it's honestly an amazing feeling.

In closing, give me one single piece of advice for someone that's in your shoes five years ago and today.

I think probably one of the best things that helped us get things moving was seeking out all these other agencies, going and seeing their operations. They were all great, but I walked into one in particular and it was impressive. I looked around, and I thought, "This is amazing." You could tell these guys are for real, and that's what I want when people walk into my air unit. I want them to feel the same thing. And then that's, I think, the best way that you can move forward with this. And just knowing that you're always going to have to prove yourself because it is an expensive program. When times get tough, the first thing they want to cut is something that's the most expensive. But if you're doing the right thing, and you're keeping the statistics, and you're proving to them why you're worth that money, then they're not going to get rid of you. They're going to keep you around.

And I'll turn that right back to you.

So when you visited that unit and they were the best, I'm going to... You're that guy now. You're one of those guys now in the Stockton Police Department Aviation program. Couldn't be prouder to be partnered with them from the manufacturer standpoint.

So thank you for what you do, and congratulations on an incredible success.

I appreciate that. Like I said, I was lucky enough to have some amazing people to work with to help me to do this, to put this together, and I won't discount luck either. I'll take that all day long, so I'm just happy to have been able to do this.