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TAMPA — Officials suspended a Tampa police helicopter pilot for five days without pay Thursday following an internal affairs investigation into an unscheduled flight last fall.
Dave Dennison, 32, has been working for the department since 2000 and piloting since 2002, said Laura McElroy, a spokeswoman for the police. The investigation found he misused city property.
Dennison flew the chopper to St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport last fall during his shift to drop off a fishing net to a friend, McElroy said.
Found by Cinàedh.
So from Tampa to St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport. That’s ~16 miles per Google Maps.
Not defending his actions, but aren’t there larger fish to fry?
How much did this internal affairs investigation cost to only lead to a five day suspension?
I wonder if any cop ever used a patrol car to run a quick errand? Why does anything with aviation alway become sensationalized?
1.) Check around and see what this actually cost. I’m guessing about fifty to a hundred. Choppers are not cheap transportation.
2.) At a guess he was supposed to be on standby and wasn’t.
3.) Clearances?
Let’s see, 1000 officer on the Tampa force, one 5 mile errand a year at 50 cents a mile, that’s $2500 and I am sure that it happens more than once a year. Maybe once a month/week/day!?
I’m with trinorth
Cruising speed of about 100, so it took about 10 minutes each direction
30 gp/h fuel consumption so generously consume 15 gallons for the errand
$5 per gallon for fuel
Nick him the $75 for the fuel
If you want to really punish him, dock his pay for the hour he “should have been working.”
It didn’t say anywhere he did anything dangerous. Somebody snitched on him.
Should he have done it? Eh. Prolly not.
Should he be nailed for a week’s pay for it? Only if you want a resentful, PO-d helicopter pilot that is otherwise expected to be at our beckon call as a public servant and risks his life every day for us.
It probably cost several hundreds of dollars to pursue this $75 infraction.
Next up: prosecuting doughnut runs in a police cruiser as a misuse of public property.
If it wasn’t dangerous or egregious, lighten up.
They may have been fishnet stockings:
sounds like a small slap on the wrist and not unreasonable (like firing the guy etc).
at least he has a few days now to go fishing with the friend 🙂
chopper probably costs $600 an hour or more to operate…
Stupid Florida, not even enough sense to FIRE the dipshiat.
More like $2000 an hour to operate.
Tempest in a teapot.
and, Special Ed, can’t you find any attractive women on the Internet, instead of men in drag?
We have the same argument locally when a Police Vehicle or a Fire Unit are used for donut runs, lunch pickups, etc.
The conclusion was simple enough…. The Police Vehicle is still on the road and available for calls. Only the actual time at the end points is meaningful.
The Fire Units are also fully available in the same way, and these runs are excellent training for new drivers before they get to the “lights and sirens” level.
Firing up a helo on this basis is probably outside of the above, unless the agency keeps one in the air all the time anyway, or has ’em idling on the pad. It still may be an advantage to have the aircraft actually in the air during certain periods of the day, even if dropping some fish nets is the only reason it’s really up there. Not to mention training pilots and observers.
In short, somebody didn’t get a ride….
OK I guess I figure 16 miles. I think the person could have drove to the officer rather then spending money to fly the chopper. What was this guy thinking?
Dropping off a fishing net by helicopter not OK. Holding up a flight so someone can see his dead relative a little sooner, kudos to you!
Jeez, that pilot really must have pissed off the mechanics, when I was flying stuff like that was always “maintenance check flights”.
And when I flew to town from camp first stop was always the liquor store for the bosses favorite whiskey and the latest newspaper he read.
Not a very smart pilot.