The Tomball Police Department will now have the ability to fight crime, and prevent it, from the skies after being approved for a one-of-a-kind program.

Last week Police Chief Rob Hauck introduced the department’s latest crime-fighting tool, the gyroplane, a small two-person aircraft that he calls a “force multiplier.”

“It can get a perspective you can never have from the ground,” he said. “This is the equivalent of having 20 officers on the ground.”

The gyroplane provides room for two officers: a primary pilot and a tactical flight officer. Hauck explained that the role of the pilot will be to control and fly the aircraft while the tactical flight officer will be “the person doing the police work.”

“Although they will both have experience and understanding of police work,” Hauck said. “They will be a key link to the folks on the ground.”

Last week, a flight instructor from the factory that produced the aircraft completed three weeks of training for Tomball officers on how to utilize the gyroplane. The aircraft was expected to fly overhead during last weekend’s German Heritage Festival.

Hauck said the gyroplane will typically fly between 500 and 1,000 feet above the city

According to a statement issued by the Tomball Police Department, the aircraft will “primarily be used for traffic monitoring/mitigation, airborne patrols to identify and deter criminal activity, search and rescue missions, damage assessments following significant weather events, photography of critical infrastructure, patrolling planned community events…and in response to unusual circumstances to provide situational awareness to incident commanders on the ground.”

“When you can cover so much more area, and be in so many places at one time, the benefits tohe community from a safety standpoint, from an officer safety standpoint, is tremendous,” Hauck said.

The City of Tomball is the first in the U.S. to utilize such an aircraft. The program was initiated last year when in June, the department was selected from a nationwide candidate pool to become a member of the United States Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice’s Aviation Technology Program (DOJ).  The program is entitled, “Advancing Criminal Justice Policy, Practice, and Technology – Evaluation of Low-cost Aviation Options for Law Enforcement.”

As part of an agreement approved last week by the Tomball City Council, the DOJ has provided the department $40,000 in grant money for “research and evaluation” of the gyroplane.

The purchase price for the gyroplane was $74,000. The department set aside $50,000 in the current budget to fund the program. The purchase price included communication equipment and training.  Hauck explained the money was generated through fines collected from city’s red light camera program.

While the gyroplane is the first of its kind in  U.S., it’s a popular crime-fighting tool in Europe. According to the Tomball PD, the gyroplane is manufactured in Germany.

“There are more than 1,000 gyroplanes flying worldwide, many of which are being used by military units, civil air patrol and police agencies around the world, and the aircraft has an excellent safety record,” the department stated.

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