The Surrey Police helicopter has moved to a more secure base, after fears criminals were deliberately putting it out of action before committing crimes.
On October 30 last year, and again on April 30, it was vandalised and had its windows smashed at its base in Fairoaks Airport, Chobham.
As a result, police reviewed its location and decided to relocate to RAF Odiham, a secure military site close to Surrey’s border with Hampshire.
A range of options were considered to enhance security, but investment at the civilian facility would have been prohibitively expensive, a situation compounded by Surrey Police’s budget being capped.
A police spokesman said: “On April 30 it was damaged badly enough that it couldn’t be flown for a few days while it was repaired.
“We don’t think it’s mindless vandalism but think people are trying to put it out of service before they go out and commit crimes. On both occasions there were robberies afterwards so we needed to review security.”
The helicopter remains on 24-hour standby for deployment and will continue to provide a service for the whole county.
It was deployed to Elmbridge 12 times during July on various tasks including searches for missing people, searches for suspects, a firearms incident, a pursuit and pre-planned tasks.
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