APD Air Support

This is the UNOFFICIAL site for New Mexico's Albuquerque Police Department Air Support Unit. This web site was created, is maintained and is paid for by ME, and does not necessarily reflect the opinion or meet the approval of the Albuquerque Police Department or the City of Albuquerque.

The Albuquerque Police Department has utilized fixed wing aircraft since 1973 from within different bureaus in the department. We are flying a Cessna 182 and since December 1996 we have been flying two Bell OH-58A+ helicopters.

The APD Air Support Unit serves the metropolitan area of Albuquerque and Bernalillo County. Located in central New Mexico where I-40 and I-25 intersect, this area supports approximately 1/3 of the entire State's population. We serve over 570,000 citizens within this metro area of approximately 1200 square miles. Our elevation varies from 4900 feet at the Rio Grande River to 10,678 feet at the Sandia Mountain peak.

We are located at the
Double Eagle II Airport (AEG)
7401 Paseo del Volcan NW
Albuquerque, NM 87121
(505) 833-6983 (Hangar)
(505) 833-6981 (Hangar Fax)

Our mailing address is:

Albuquerque Police Department
Air Support Unit
400 Roma N.W.
Albuquerque, NM 87102

BENEFITS OF AIR SUPPORT

Reduced Liability

Virtually ends all high speed pursuits:

Tort claims have awarded over one-half million dollars per incident due to injury or death as a result of a fleeing suspect crashing into a citizen.
Police ground units discontinue the pursuit when Air Support arrives
The suspect will then reduce speed and drive more reasonable or if he continues to drive reckless it is by his own choice, not because the police are chasing him.