The one thing I do like about it is knowing why random helicopters are flying above my apartment (in NYC) at various times of day. Like this past Wednesday, around 6 AM. Helicopters hovered overhead keeping me up for an hour. Turns out there was a huge fire a few blocks down. I wouldn't have known otherwise.
Shouldn’t this be the responsibility of police? How hard would it be for the precinct that sent the chopper to also take a minute to update their website (if they have one) or send out a tweet? “Working on putting out a fire on E 71st” ...
Ideally yes, but is it a hard-enough responsibility to mandate? If not, it seems like there is a financial opportunity for a company to fill that request. Especially in the case of time-sensitive emergencies, it seems like "informing the public as things happen" isn't the number one priority.
CIP: Living in downtown Portland, I have way better luck searching recent "#portlandprotests" tweets than I do checking the PPB Twitter feed. The latter usually shows up within 24 hours, but doesn't really solve the immediate curiosity of "why is there a helicopter hovering above my house right now".
It happens in the DC area too. We get a mix of civilian and military helicopters at random times every day, the military ones annoy me the most because they often make the windows shake.
