I write this at 1.45am on a Monday morning having once again been rudely awakened by the whole house shaking (I'm not exaggerating).
This time it made me very angry, so in my rage I went out to the back garden and gesticulated wildly with my arms in big 'go away' motions.

Unsurprisingly they didn't see me in the darkness. They were obviously not attending an emergency call though, because ground units were not present and they had no searchlight on. They were flying very low, in circles, apparently for no reason.

I would be very interested to know how much of our tax money is being used to terrorise us while we sleep!

This is not the first time it's happened either, in fact it is quite a regular thing for my family to be shaken awake at night by the police helicopter, usually between 3 and 4am.

In my opinion, the local police are more of a menace to society than the criminals.

I would be very interested to see the results of an experiment to measure the decibel level coming from that helicopter.
I am sure that what the police are doing is 'disturbing the peace' and that they are breaking noise pollution laws.

NAME SUPPLIED
White Lee Road
BATLEY

l In response, a West Yorkshire police spokesman said: "Rather than 'terrorise' the public, the Force helicopter is an invaluable crime fighting tool, which last year cost the people of West Yorkshire 62p each to operate.

Between April 2007 and March 2008, the helicopter was responsible for directly locating 434 suspects and 39 missing persons.

A further 214 suspects were located by divisional officers due to the helicopter's attendance at incidents where it was able to assist officers in finding suspects through the high-tech imaging equipment the helicopter carries.

Almost £1.5m worth of property was also recovered during the period as well as 117 vehicles.

The helicopter is only sent to incidents where time is a key factor or where large areas of ground need to be covered quickly and effectively, such as in missing person cases and when offenders are being pursued by officers in vehicles or on foot.

The incident mentioned in the letter was a request for the helicopter to assist in a search for three suspects who had made off from officers in the Healey area of Batley.

We would hope that people can see the benefit of the helicopter to West Yorkshire police and accept that when it is airborne, it is for a serious police matter.