Why Police Helicopters Are Crowding New York’s Skies

This week’s MapLab comes from Fola Akinnibi, a Bloomberg CityLab reporter, and Raeedah Wahid, a Bloomberg graphics reporter. They recently investigated – and mapped – the New York City police department’s recent uptick in helicopter use.

It was an annoyed resident of Manhattan’s Battery Park neighborhood that tipped us off: Day after day, helicopters would buzz overhead and rattle the 11th-floor window of Bill Accordino, Jr.’s apartment, rocking and shaking the building. The noise pushed him to check flight-tracking applications to see what was causing the nuisance. That’s when Accordino noticed the New York City Police Department was responsible for many of the trips.