The Winnipeg Police Service (WPS) used the AIR1 helicopter far less in 2016 compared to 2015, according to the Flight Operations Annual Report.

But the Divisional Commander of Operational Support/Speciality Units says it was still vital to police officer’s jobs.

The report says 732.8 hours of flight time were logged in 2016, which is a 27 per cent decrease from 2015. It also says there were 1571 calls for service AIR1 responded to, which is a 35 per cent decrease.

However, Inspector Jon Lutz says those drops aren’t about the importance of AIR1.

“Aircrafts have a very strict regimented maintenance cycle,” said Lutz. “We’re very proactive and conscientious of our cycle and we had some of that major work done this year which took us off for some time.”

“The second factor this year is we also had a catastrophic failure of our camera.”

Lutz also addressed questions about the province pulling their portion of funding for AIR1, leaving funding entirely up to the city. The former NDP Government pledged to review its funding for the helicopter but the Progressive Conservatives scrapped that review earlier this month.

“I can’t speak for what the province is or isn’t going to do but we’re going ahead with the program,” said Lutz. “We believe in it and it’s effective.”

Lutz added cutting the AIR1 program would be detrimental to the WPS because it allows them to coordinate with ground units to lessen property damage during chases and locate suspects or vulnerable persons who may be at risk in a timelier fashion.

The report states that AIR1 was instrumental in identifying and apprehending 175 persons of interest. Of those, 60 were taken into custody for criminal offences.

“Our level of service with that (AIR1) is improving,” said Lutz. “Our members are getting better at using it and understanding its capabilities. We are more efficient and effective with it. We now provide specialized services that we couldn’t do before. “

AIR1’s total operating budget last year was $1.93-million. The WPS says they are coming off two months where AIR1 assisted in over 40 apprehensions for each month.

Police provided video displaying the usefulness of AIR1: