Youth Tour Takes In the Helicopter, the Dispatch Floor and the Horses

A group of local young people spent a day inside the Pasadena Police Department this month, moving from an Air Operations fly-in and rooftop demonstration to the dispatch floor, through the jail and out to meet the department’s horses.

The tour was arranged with Neighbors Acting Together Helping All, a community organization whose managing director, Celeste M. Walker, hosted it alongside Police Chief Gene Harris. Participants heard presentations from Traffic and Community Relations and toured the Public Safety Communications Center, according to the City of Pasadena.

The aviation unit they watched is one of the oldest in the region. The department created a Helicopter Section in 1969 and describes itself as “a leader in the law enforcement and aviation community.” Air Operations flies aerial patrol on emergency calls, monitors traffic and supports officers on the ground.

Its work reaches well past police calls. The unit runs brush surveys and fire management flights for the Pasadena Fire Department and shoots aerial photography for Public Works, Code Compliance, the Planning Division and the City Attorney’s Office. It also manages the air operations group of the Los Angeles Interagency Metropolitan Police Apprehension Crime Task Force on a cost recovery basis, and provides helicopter service to neighboring cities through the Foothill Air Support Team, developed in 1999 after several local cities sought shared coverage.

In April the section hosted its 35th Annual Law Enforcement Fly-In at the Rose Bowl, coordinated by Officer Steve Thurston, with a static display of more than two dozen emergency response helicopters and units from agencies across Southern California.

The communications center the group visited is the city’s designated “Public Safety Answering Point,” the first stop for 911 calls placed in Pasadena. Its staff includes dispatch supervisors Lakisha Higgins, Monica Ridley and Rachel Johnson and dispatchers Alesandra Perez and Veronica Dunham.

The mounted unit that closed the day is the newest of the three. The City Council voted unanimously in October 2024 to restore mounted policing after a 19-year gap; officers last patrolled Pasadena on horseback in 2005. Five officers completed the Western States Mounted Officers Association’s Foundation and Skills Course at the Ben Clark Training Center in Riverside in April.

Neighbors Acting Together Helping All now centers its work on disaster relief, community resilience and civic engagement, and youth work remains part of its foundation, the city said.

Residents can follow the department’s activity through its weekly Calls for Service report, posted at https://wp-upload.cityofpasadena.net/departments/police/recentcallsforservice.pdf. Department information is at https://www.cityofpasadena.net/police/.