King County Sheriff’s Office Air Support Unit has taken delivery of their first glass cockpit helicopter, a brand new Bell 407GXi as seen in the image here.  Unit pilots flew the aircraft over four days from Bell’s completion centre at Piney Flats in Tennessee, arriving on 22nd September at Renton Municipal Airport, where the Air Support Unit is headquartered.  It represents the first helicopter acquired new by King County Sheriff, who had previously relied on federal grants or ex-military disposal programs.

The KCSO law enforcement fleet now numbers two Bell 407s (the second was acquired in 2008), and two elderly UH-1Hs.  The Sheriff additionally has three TH-67s – originally from the military training fleet in their white/orange scheme – but there is no evidence that these have been put into law enforcement use, although some press reports refer to the unit having “a training helicopter” and we have been unable to trace any flights of the other two.

The new aircraft cost close to $5.5 million, with Washington state contributing $1.0M instead of the $2.7M that King County originally requested in early 2023.  KCSO apparently removed around $1M of specialist equipment from a 1973 B206 to be transferred into the new aircraft.  Following that, the JetRanger N411KS was sold to Northwest Helicopters.

In May, US Rep. Kim Schrier, a Democrat whose 8th Congressional District includes portions of eastern King, Pierce and Snohomish counties, requested $2 million from the appropriations committee next year for upgrades to one of the two Hueys in the KCSO.  The money would be used to upgrade the transmission, rotors, electronics and avionics because in its current state, the Huey has diminished stability, lift and hoist capabilities.