Police in Iceland have a new and effective way to enforce traffic laws in the countryside. They will now be monitoring and following traffic violators and speeders via an Icelandic Coast Guard helicopter. The helicopter will fly close to the vehicle and then instruct the car to pull over. The helicopter will then land and the police will handle the driver’s violation.
“This new way of tracking vehicles allows us to cover a wider area in a shorter time,” says Sveinn Runarsson, Police Chief in Hvolsvollur, a town located in southern Iceland. “We perform these helicopter operations as much as we have the opportunity to.”
To watch a video about how the new helicopter surveillance system works, click here. Although the video is in Icelandic, it is possible to still view how the helicopter stops vehicles.
2 Øystein; Norway
Preventing accidents and flying rescue helicopter for a cheap PR are two different matters.
They better then rent a couple of Russian Mi-24 Hinds (aka Crocodiles) gunships and shred to pieces a couple of cars speeding over limit (filming it as well) – this might have an effect on drivers :-) At least it would be a hit on youtube.
And horses would be much more effective. As there are riders everywhere – drivers won’t be able to tell whether they are watched by police (on horse) or it’s just another rider. For prevention it makes no difference – as long as drivers know about the presence of the police on the road. But this would be hell more effective and hell less expensive.
So if you – in Norway – don’t count money you can fly F-16 over your roads. But as a driver and taxpayer in Iceland I have full rights to say – IDIOTS! :-)
this concept is just stupid!!
One of the many brainwashed Norwegians.
> AE. Idots? Perhaps the “idots” try to prevent real emergency. Normal economic understanding says it is cheaper to prevent accidendts than let them happend. So some use of helicopters can really be a good use of money.
I saw the idiots but I thought something happened with someone and it was an emergency flight. So when there will be real emergency – helicopter will be grounded because its engine hours had been used to scary foreign tourists (as both cars were rent ones for sure).
2 JonnyBGoode
“Has ANYONE, and I mean a single person in the entire country, studied economics – ever?”
Don’t worry. Majority of people understand what economy is about even without “study” it. But the decision is made by politicians and police chief. And they are hopeless from the point of teaching them anything :-(
I’m sure that local police guys would be happy to get extra money for their salary to provide coverage in the area on regular car (or even horses). But now the force is forced to fly.
I don’t think it will last for long – fuel, spare parts, pilots cost a lot. But money are wasted for sure :-(
This is too idiotic to be believed.
Has ANYONE, and I mean a single person in the entire country, studied economics – ever?
This is a part of keeping the speed on the highways down, its also expensive to treat injured people and care for crippled ones.
I enjoyed watching that video, but it’s not serious is it? I mean, it would be worth speeding just to have a helicopter to pull you over! But you’d have to film it on your mobile and upload to YouTube, otherwise no-one would believe you. It’s reassuring to know all those loans to Iceland are being put to good use.
Isn’t this a little bit expensive traffic control?