page_title: New South Wales Police Force
section_title: Police Aviation Support Branch
hierarchical_section_title: New South Wales Police Force / Vehicles / Police Aviation Support Branch
caption_attribution_description: English: New South Wales Police Force (VH-DQV) Cessna Grand Caravan 208B EX taxiing at Wagga Wagga Airport.
context_page_description: The New South Wales Police Force is the primary law enforcement agency of the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is a servant of the Crown, independent of Government, although a minister of the Crown has administration. Divided into Police Area Commands, for metropolitan areas of NSW and Police Districts, for regional and country areas of NSW, the NSW Police Force consists of more than 500 local police stations and covers an area of 801,600 square kilometres in a state of some eight million people.
  Under the Police Regulation Act, 1862, the organisation of the NSW Police Force was formally established in 1862 with the unification of all existing independent police units in the state. The authority and responsibility of the entire police force was given to the inspector general of police.
  The current commissioner of the NSW Police Force is Mick Fuller, with some 16,649 officers as of 2016.
context_section_description: The Police Aviation Support Branch (Airwing), callsign "POLAIR", is an integral part of the police. It provides services as: search and rescue, support for crime investigation, counter-terrorism, and helps with prevention and detection by keeping a visible presence patrolling the skies.
  The current fleet is composed of eight aircraft – six helicopters and three fixed-wing aircraft:
  Helicopters: Polair 1–5
  1 – 2006 Eurocopter AS350-B2
  2 – 2017 twin- engine Bell 412EPI for rescue, transport and special operations
  3 – 1997 Eurocopter AS350-B2
  4 – 2010 twin-engine Eurocopter EC135P2+
  5 – 2012 twin- engine Bell 412EPI for rescue, transport and special operations
  Fixed-wing aircraft: Polair 6–8
  6 – single-engine turboprop Cessna 208 Caravan, Grand Caravan EX 208B
  7 – single-engine 2000 model Cessna 206 Stationair
  8 – single-engine turboprop Cessna 208 Caravan, Grand Caravan EX 208B
  The aircraft are equipped with modern technology and specialist equipment including rescue winches, Nite sun searchlights (30 million candle power), forward-looking infrared (FLIR), high definition video camera system, microwave down-linking of live pictures, digital radio communications and advanced integrated touch screen digital glass cockpits with global positioning satellite (GPS) navigation systems.
  On 6 June 2011, the Commissioner, Andrew Scipione, announced the incorporation of a new helicopter to the fleet. Referred to as PolAir 4, this is a state-of-the-art, twin-engine Eurocopter EC135 P2+ that is fitted with modern blade technology including a "fenestron" tail-rotor to make aircraft operations quieter over urban areas, and a speed of up to 220 kilometres per hour (140 mph). It is planned that the Eurocopter EC135 design will replace the current single-engine models.
  The fixed wing Cessna 206H aircraft, callsign Polair 6, is primarily used for aerial speed enforcement along major freeways and highways in the State. It is also used to transport officers and assist with search operations in remote areas of the State.
  The much larger Cessna 208 Grand Caravan, callsign Polair 7, provides the police with a long-range heavy lift capability allowing for the transport of cargo, specialist equipment and personnel during extensive search and rescue incidents which is ideal for use in remote locations across the state.
  Various other fixed-wing aircraft such as a leased Cessna 500 have been used for major operations including the APEC Australia 2007 security operation. Another was also used during the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000.
caption: Cessna Grand Caravan EX 208B POLAIR 8
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS 60D", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "180", "Image YResolution": "180", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS6 (Macintosh)", "Image DateTime": "2017:05:15 17:47:10", "Image Artist": "Robert Myers", "Image Copyright": "Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Australia", "Image ExifOffset": "304", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1018", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "4483", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/500", "EXIF FNumber": "8", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Manual", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "200", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Recommended Exposure Index", "EXIF RecommendedExposureIndex": "200", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2017:05:15 14:57:03", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2017:05:15 14:57:03", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "1120723/125000", "EXIF ApertureValue": "6", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "39/8", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Partial", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "179", "EXIF SubSecTime": "51", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "51", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "51", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2000", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1334", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "1036800/181", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "691200/119", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Manual Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Manual", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF CameraOwnerName": "Robert Myers", "EXIF BodySerialNumber": "1581006940", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[55, 250, 0/0, 0/0]", "EXIF LensModel": "EF-S55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS", "EXIF LensSerialNumber": "000036e413"}