The City of Mission, a Fraser Valley community in the greater Vancouver region, has approved paying the RCMP for helicopter patrols overhead as part of its 'Mission Community Response to Extortion Threats' plan, CBC News reports.
The air patrols are one part of a broader municipal package of public-safety measures aimed at deterring extortion attempts, which have been reported against South Asian-owned businesses in several Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley communities.
Mission council voted to fund the patrols from city resources, adding an aerial deterrent to the ground-level policing already under way in the region.
Extortion threats against businesses have been a recurring policing concern across Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley, and Mission's move makes it one of the first municipalities in the area to fund dedicated helicopter patrols in response.
