A sort of 'Big Brother' in the sky above the city, capable of uncovering even the most hidden hideouts and every possible access and escape route to a target. The helicopter of the aerial section of the Guardia di Finanza in Venice increasingly patrols the city of Vicenza and the municipalities of the province with the aim of mapping the territory to enable the planning of the best strategies to counter crime, but also to provide support to ground patrols in real time when raids are triggered.
From above, the cameras allow for capturing every corner of the city, providing the military with a view that is impossible from the ground. This is well understood when boarding: it is possible to see up close the high-definition images projected in real time on the monitors. Images that allow getting very close to the target. 'The contribution provided by the aerial section of the Guardia di Finanza in Venice has a dual value - explains Lieutenant Alessio Curione, commander of the operational unit of the yellow flames of Vicenza -. On one hand, it supports the operations of the Corps, and on the other, it performs screening and monitoring activities of the capital and the municipalities of the province. In particular, on one hand, it identifies targets that may be susceptible to operational deepening and, on the other, it carries out a mapping of the territory.'
All this information 'is then shared with other police forces and public order bodies, particularly with the police headquarters and the prefecture, both in the context of monitoring activities, as during the floods that affected the territory of Vicenza, and secondly also to support a comprehensive control of the province,' he adds. This is why the importance of helicopter deployment cannot be weighed, for example, by the quantity of drugs seized during a single raid. With every flight, the cameras allow capturing information that can initiate investigations or allow studying a future raid.
'The latest generation equipment of the helicopters in service with the corps allows for very thorough and incisive monitoring of any area of the territory and, therefore, for pervasive control,' concludes Lieutenant Curione.
(GdV, martedì 26 marzo)