Helicopters: For All Purposes

Los Angeles County deputy sheriffs last week went up in the air to fight crime on the ground. Cruising 20 hours a day in helicopters above the city of Lakewood (pop. 67,000), near Long Beach, the officers kept a particular watch for an ingenious new type of alarm beacon mounted atop homes and stores. The 1,000-watt beacons, visible five miles in daylight and twelve at night, light up either manually or automatically to signal break-ins or holdups. Within 21 minutes at most, the sheriff's men expect to swoop down on the scene,...

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