The sprawling metropolis of Tomball, Texas is spending a $40,000 grant from the Department of Justice to purchase…a gyroplane.
It is unclear from the linked article if the pilot will have to strap a colander to his face. It is also unclear what a gyroplane will accomplish that can’t be accomplished by a UAV (which the Houston Police Department actually has some experience with, unlike the gyroplane, which is not in use by any other police department in the United States).
In other news, Chief Art Acevedo has suspended two Austin Police Department officers.
Officer #2 was suspended for “failing to yield to two pedestrians crossing Barton Springs Road in a crosswalk in December”. According to the Statesman, the officer was responding to an emergency call, but did not have his lights and sirens on, and did not actually hit anyone. He was suspended for a day.
What did Officer #1 do? Well, he went out to a call at a local home (at 2:30 AM on New Year’s Eve). While inside the home, it appears he was standing on a table trying to search the attic when the table tipped over and the officer fell.
Unfortunately, the officer had his booger hook on the bang switch of his weapon when he fell, causing it to go off
…and strike an officer “in the tops of both feet. The other officer was injured and required medical treatment.”
The officer in question has been suspended for three days. Beyond what is quoted in the article, there is no update on the current medical condition of the officer who was shot in the feet.
(Stolen from “Charlie Sheen Quotes as New Yorker Cartoons” which I commend to your attention.)