Henrico County Police Chief Douglas A. Middleton looked around at the new Metro Aviation Hangar.
"This," he said, "is the diamond of regional cooperation."
Middleton's observation was echoed by government and police officials from Henrico, Chesterfield County and Richmond who gathered Saturday in Sandston to dedicate the hangar used by the three localities.
The hangar -- 3 stories tall and about 4,500 square feet, including 1,100 square feet of office space -- houses the four small planes shared by the localities' police departments.
Assembled from materials that had been used in a nearby Virginia Air National Guard hangar before that guard operation was relocated, the new hangar represents savings for the three localities.
The previous hangar had been leased from a commercial landlord for $84,000 per year, Middleton explained. The new hangar, on property under the control of the Capital Region Airport Commission, costs the three localities $60,000 per year, with the cost split equally.
The four planes are used steadily, said Lt. Steven J. Sparagna, the Henrico pilot who directs operations at the hangar. He said each plane typically is in the air six days a week.
The planes are used for police and fire surveillance, assistance for officers involved in highway and foot pursuit, traffic and crowd control at special events, extradition of prisoners from other states to Virginia, and in other law enforcement work.
Chesterfield Police Chief Thierry Dupuis said the operation is "a premier example" of regional cooperation.
Richmond Deputy Chief John J. Buturla agreed. "There are no geographic boundaries to what we do," he said.
Byron C. Marshall, the city's chief administrator, said it is not unusual for the three localities to share an operation. "You'll have a Richmond pilot flying," he said, "a Henrico observer on board, and they're helping Chesterfield police on the ground."
Middleton said the common effort was just part of a general we're-in-this-together attitude taken by the police departments of the three jurisdictions.
He praised Richmond Police Chief Bryan T. Norwood for taking the lead in that cooperative spirit. Norwood, who did not attend the dedication ceremony, is a finalist to fill the open police chief position in Raleigh, N.C.
"It will be a huge loss for the region if he goes," Middleton said, "and you can quote me on that."
He said other Richmond chiefs have worked well in concert with the rest of the region, "but Bryan took it to another level," increasing day-to-day contact and making cooperation a given among the departments.
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