Police helicopters have been scrambled to almost 600 incidents in Hertfordshire since April, new figures show.
According to Herts Police, the two choppers covering the county have assisted officers on the ground 591 times since April 1.
The helicopter help, which costs up to £1.9million a year, resulted in 43 arrests and one successful search for a missin
g person.
Police spokesman Laurel Smithson said there had been 'no particular increase' in the number of police helicopter flights above Dacorum.
She said: "Sometimes (the helicopters] will not go up for months in any given area, and sometimes the crew attend a specific incident or stay up to see if they are needed elsewhere - what we call 'proactive patrolling'."
Herts is covered by two choppers which also assist Bedfordshire and Thames Valley Police, costing taxpayers across the region about 60p a year.
The Chiltern Air Support Unit has been called to more than 2,000 incidents across all three areas since April, resulting in a total of 165 arrests, nine evacuations, 58 recoveries of stolen vehicles, 22 successful searches for missing people and the recovery of £3.9million of property.
In the financial year 2007/8 the choppers were called out 5,910 times resulting in 472 arrests, 24 evacuations, 71 successful missing person searches and the recovery of £2 million of property.
According to Herts Police, the helicopters are called to help with arrests, nuisance vehicles, car chases, missing people, missing property, evacuations of casualties and drugs factory busts - with 80 per cent of cannabis factories in the region found by chopper crews.
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