Poor old Police Commissioner Darwin Dottin. Today he told The Nation that the seldom-seen (and therefore seldom used) police blimp is laid up for repairs and ‘issues’.
‘Issues’ ???
Dottin refused to say when the blimp will be back in service, and any Bajan knows that is Bim-speak for ‘never’. Good lord, how many hundred thousand dollars did the Owen Arthur government pay for that bag of helium and some radio control parts and video?
And now it is rotting somewhere, virtually unused since its proud debut at the failed Cricket World Cup five years ago.
Dottin complains that the helium necessary to fly the blimp is expensive. Well, duh! Didn’t the police study the costs on a per-flight basis when they bought this turkey? I guess not ’cause the cost appears to have been a surprise to Commissioner Dottin.
Well, Darwin old chap, don’t you worry!
You see, technology has marched right on in the last five or six years and now the Royal Barbados Police Force can purchase UAV – unmanned aerial surveillance vehicles – for a lousy US$500 each. They are called Parrots, and they work with an iPhone or iPad and have incredible maneuverability along with HD video capability – live broadcast and recording. I’m not sure about their duration on station, but hey, for $500 bucks each you could afford to have dozens of them all over the island and you wouldn’t approach a twentieth of the cost of the Barbados Police Blimp.
So Commissioner Dottin, just fire up that iPad, iPhone or other smartphone, get on the ‘net and order a Parrot UAV for US$500.
You know: Internet. iPad. iPhone. Smartphone.
Commissioner Dottin, you know what I’m talking about, right?
Further Reading
The Nation: Blimp up for repairs
SUN, AUGUST 05, 2012 – 12:09 AM
THE BLIMP that was first deployed to help police keep watch and fight crime five years ago is out of commission for now.
The high-tech, state-of-the-art equipment, which was launched as part of security for Cricket World Cup (CWC) games held at Kensington Oval, is in need of repairs, Commissioner of Police Darwin Dottin has confirmed.
“There are some issues and some repairs that need to be done,” he told the SUNDAY SUN, although not disclosing the nature of the repairs or how long the blimp was expected to be unavailable.
Pressed about what use had been made of the expensive piece of technology which was launched into the skies in April, 2007, Dottin stressed that it had not been abandoned.
“The blimp is a tactical asset. It would not necessarily be used daily because there is a cost attached to it as well,” he explained, noting that the helium for the airship was costly. (DP)
Once again Barbados tries to solve problems with technology only to discover that technology in the hands of the moron is the problem.
Did we forget to change the oil on the thing?
I’d love to know how much we paid for that. It needed three guys to transport, assemble and ‘fly’ it although it was only a tethered gas bag with a remotely controlled video camera slung below it with an umbilical cord to the ground. Way too much money whatever we paid for it.
I’d love to know how many times we used it operationally (i.e.: discount the test, training and demo uses.) Amortize the number of operational uses over the cost and I bet it would be thousands and thousands of dollars per operational use.
What results were obtained?
This was probably as bad a decision as anything. How much real equipment could this money have purchased for the officers?
One other thing: what was the original spec’d lifetime of the balloon? Hot air balloons, sailboat sails and awnings have predicted lifetimes because the sun and age weaken them. What was the predicted lifetime of the balloon?
Or didn’t we think to ask that question?
The moment I saw the balloon in the paper years ago at cricket world cup I knew that we’d paid a fortune for it and that it would soon be sitting in some disused shed. The unwiedyness of the contraption was appalling. It takes hours to deploy and is not mobile.
The little Parrot copter or whatever it’s called could make short work of searching a cane field for lost children or confused old people like that man who went missing and they recently found his body after months. A drone can cover huge areas very quickly and with a high degree of assurance. If there are places they can’t see like under a group of trees, then searchers can be deployed to only those areas.
Wily Coyote said it right….a moron using anything will prove it cannot work.
So the blimp is on the shelf with the breathalysers & speed cameras.
As for the price tag, well add that to the $12,000.00 per Segway that could have bought ow many push bikes???
apologies to the Kenyan that wrote this but it was too close to home
“A Barbadian politician went to the US, to visit his counterpart. When the
senator invited him home for dinner, the minister was very impressed
by the lavish mansion, grounds and the costly furnishings. He asked
“How can you afford all this on a meagre senator’s salary?”
The senator smiled knowingly and took him to the window.
“Can you see the river?”
“Yes”
“Can you see the bridge over it?”
“Of course”, said the minister.
“10 percent”, said the senator smugly.
Some time later, he had occasion to pay a return visit. The Barbadian
minister lavished all hospitality on him. When they came to his
house, the American was stunned by the huge palace the minister had
built, glittering with precious art, hundreds of servants etc. etc.
“How can you possibly afford this, on a salary in Barbadian Dollars?’, he asked.
The minister called him to the window.
“See the river over there?”
“Sure”, cried the senator.
“Can you see the bridge over it?”
The senator looked, was confused, peered closely and said –
“No, I don’t see any bridge.”
“100 percent”, said the minister !”
I watched many of the videos about the Parrot RPV and I can see many uses for it in policing. It’s cheap and easy to fly. Does anybody know how much the balloon and installed equipment cost the taxpayers?
I saw one of these contraptions flying at long beach a few months ago taking photos/movies of the kite flyers. A tourist brought it to Barbados on holiday. it was one of the earlier models and he explained the difference. looked like a lot of fun and simple to use.