Hey, suspect armed with ax, you can't out-run a sheriff helicopter

The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department went absolutely Twitter-happy during its first-ever “tweetalong” on May 10.

During a roughly four-hour patrol aboard one of the department’s three EC120 Eurocopters, a swift-thumbed deputy posted a hundred tweets, photos and videos to the department’s Twitter account, @SacSheriff. Vehicles were pursued, homicides were investigated and questions were answered. (Apparently the air support unit prefers being called “STAR”—for “Sheriff’s Tactical Air Resource”—to “ghetto bird.”)

A videotaped foot chase of a man supposedly armed with an ax ended with this dry capper of a tweet: “The suspect couldn’t outrun a helicopter. He is being taken into custody.”

The virtual ride-along was also the perfect compromise for an easily airsick journalist and chopper unit that doesn’t allow civilians on board, and assisted in the department reaching 7,000 followers—or what Justin Bieber gets every time he sneezes.

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