The National Commissioner of the South African Police Service (SAPS), General Fannie Masemola has officially handed over a brand new H125 airbus helicopter to the Division: Visible Policing and Operations to bolster the organisation’s crime combatting efforts.

The newly procured H125 airbus adds to the SAPS existing fleet of helicopter’s across the country whose aim is to provide air support in crime prevention operation’s as well as Search and Rescue (SAR) missions.

Speaking during the handing over ceremony held at the Grand Central Airport in Midrand, General Masemola says resourcing and equipping the SAPS operational environments remains a top priority for the SAPS.

“This helicopter came at the very right time when we are entering the peak of our festive season operations, there is work out there cut for its size. We continue to resource our visible and operational response environment with vehicles and other resources to strengthen our crime combatting efforts. For now, this helicopter will be based in Gauteng to bolster crime combatting operations”, said General Fannie Masemola.

The SAPS Airwing unit consists of aircrafts and helicopter’s which are responsible for policing operations ranging from routine patrols to Search and Rescue (SAR) operations, to support operations for high risk units which include the Special Task Force (STF), the Counter Assault Team(CAT), the National Intervention Unit (NIU), Tactical Response Teams (TRT) and the Public Order Police (POP) units. They also provide Operational Support during public unrests and crowd control operations, Vehicle, Stock as well as Game Theft Operations.

They mainly focus on tracking and tracing suspects in high risk incidents such as Cash-In-Transit(CIT) heists, Armed Robberies, Hijacking’s and a host of other serious and violent crimes.

Police officers who are deployed to work on board are called Airborne Law Enforcement Officers (ALEO). Apart from providing air support to specialised teams on the ground, these members are trained in assisting SAPS pilots with observations and also reading of aerial maps.