Bristol police helicopter: where it's been.

If you, like me were kept awake a couple of nights this week by the sound of a police helicopter you may wonder what on earth it was up to.

Well being the curious hack that I am I started trying to find out and I came across this brilliant website Western Counties dot org which tells you exactly where the police helicopter has been and what is has been doing.

Predictably, the Avon and Somerset Police Helicopter spent most of last weekend above the skies of the nearby Glastonbury Festival with the odd hunt elsewhere for suspected criminals.

I found out that the whirring noise which had kept me awake for a good half hour earlier this week was not actually above my house (which is what it sounded like) but was across the way in Bishopston looking for a suspected burglar.

That set my imagination running.

I don't know about you but I quite often end up watching those cop shows and I'm amazed that any criminals believe they can get away with crime when the police helicopter is patrolling the skies.

Especially the ones with the heat sensors.

So as well as being an annoyance and, for some, an infringement of peoples civil liberties surely it is also a re-assurance.

What do you think? Should the police helicopter have such a prominence in today's society? Is it a necessary evil? I'm sure we wouldn't be complaining if it stopped our house getting burgled or our car being stolen?

I do just wish police helicopters were a bit quieter. I mean, I'm a heavy sleeper but that thing hovering above Redland in the early hours of the morning really kept me up...or maybe it was the cheese I ate before bed?!