Tomball Police Department Dedicates Gyroplane in Memory of Randy Simmons

Monday, October 31, 2011 @ 11:10 AM Author:

 

 

Hello, I am a Sergeant with the Tomball Police department in Texas. A few years ago a new Chief came to us from the LAPD. The fact that we were getting someone from Los Angeles police department here in our small city was pretty cool. This person spent twenty years with LAPD and retired as a Captain. It was amazing to think that our new Chief has seen and been involved in things that most of us around here would only see on TV, we could only imagine the stories he has had along with the accomplishments and losses.

Our new Chief Robert Hauck got settled into his new position and has done a wonderful job. It has been three years now and so much has been accomplished. Our Chief has brought a great working relationship with other agencies; fire, police and EMS, as well as we had our first departmental inspection in 2010. Our second is coming next month. One thing for sure is that our chief has brought us an aviation unit. “Yes” I said an aviation unit. Our department is a made up of sixty sworn and non sworn personnel. Our city is approximately 15,000 citizens with 100,000 people shopping and coming to our city on a daily basis. You say an aviation unit just outside the 4th largest city in the united states Houston, who has 10+ helicopters. I would tell you that this is basically unheard of.

It is the way our Chief has represented him self and made working relationships throughout the country. Our aviation unit is made up of nine personnel, six from our organization and three from the Harris County Sheriffs department. We are a new unit and part time at this time as we continue to pursue the goals of the unit. All I can say is that I/we are shocked that we even have an aviation unit. After hearing my Chief discuss how he was a LAPD rookie for the first time requesting an airship to check the roof of an alarm, how easy it was to have the air unit check the roof time and time again throughout his career.

In 2010 our department had a home invasion, where an elderly couple was beaten, almost to death for their possessions. It became very frustrating for my Chief during this time, because one of the first times in his law enforcement career he could not request over the radio for the aviation unit to check the surrounding area for the suspects that left on foot and ran into a wooded area. Our department called other agencies with an air unit if they could assist and at that time they could not. During the investigation we found out that the grandson of the victims had a small helicopter and it was him a private citizen who came to the rescue for air support. Very frustrating for an LAPD retired Captain. Also in 2010 our Chief attended a conference where he had met the program manager with the Department of Justice aviation technology program. This relationship started the process of our small city having an aviation unit.

During the time that our Chief has been here we have come to know 41D. It is no secret that our Chief has seen the good, the bad and the ugly of the LAPD. His memories with your agency are real and we see how real they were as we enter his office and see the many awards and accomplishments throughout his career. One person and one incident are obvious and close to our Chiefs heart is that of Randy Simmons 41D. We see 41D on his rear windows of his cars, and the memories and posters of Randy in his office. In fact every person in our agency knows 41D.

Shortly after we received our small Gyroplane, which by the way is the first one in Law Enforcement history. We call our Gyroplane “Michael One”, named after the Angel Michael the Police protector, so our call sign was issued and complete from the FAA. But after thinking about it, we still felt like something was missing. You see when we received our new Chief from the LAPD, we received the LAPD and it only made sense for us to give honor to someone who we never met but is one of our brothers 41D. So we added 41D to our new Gyroplane. Along with Michael One and 41D we are now complete. We added the sticker 41D to the front area of our Gyroplane. I am attaching two photos, one of our unit. Our Chief is standing at the right.

Shortly after we received our small Gyroplane, which by the way is the first one in Law Enforcement history. We call our Gyroplane “Michael One”, named after the Angel Michael the Police protector, so our call sign was issued and complete from the FAA. But after thinking about it, we still felt like something was missing. You see when we received our new Chief from the LAPD, we received the LAPD and it only made sense for us to give honor to someone who we never met but is one of our brothers 41D. So we added 41D to our new Gyroplane. Along with Michael One and 41D we are now complete. We added the sticker 41D to the front area of our Gyroplane. I am attaching two photos, one of our unit. Our Chief is standing at the right.

Sgt. Keith Bitz Tomball Police Department

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