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The Garda Air Support Unit (ASU) is a unit of an Garda Síochána, the police force of the Republic of Ireland which was formed in 1997. The GASU's aircraft are maintained and flown by the Irish Air Corps, and based at Casement Aerodrome near Dublin. The unit operates a Britten-Norman BN 2T-4S Defender 4000 aircraft,(since 2001) an EC 135 T1. The Eurocopter AS355N Squirrel Helicopter, which was in use by the force up until January 2008 has been replaced by a second EC 135 T1.[1]
The Garda Air Support Unit contributed directly to 1,300 arrests within the last three years, and located 14 people during search and rescure operations. [2] Their responsibilities include providing an active support role for the Garda Síochána, Garda Aircraft may be deployed to incidents in the following circumstances,
- An Immediate threat to life.
- Incidents of crime, terrorism or of national importance.
- Immediate threat of serious public disorder.
- A task, which will lead to the immediate prevention or detection of crime.
- To gather evidence and to prevent or detect crime or to avert a serious public disorder.
- To gather information on and deal with incidents relating to Crime, Public disorder and traffic related matters.[3]
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