Hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayer money has been wasted by the Mesa Police over the last year at the same time they are complaining about budget constraints.  This money was wasted, not in pursuit of a criminal nor in the attempt to gather information, but in a personal vendetta against one private citizen, his wife, and his children.  It is part of a pattern of misuse of public money and a violation of public trust.  The Police Chief knows about it and is either encouraging it as official police policy or is not able to exercise control over his officers. 

 

Being a Mesa Police Department Helicopter Division Officer is a dream job.  Every time you rescue a stranded hiker or chase down a fleeing criminal you get a hero’s publicity.  In a time of severe budget constraints, you can pretty much fly wherever you want regardless of cost.  This means, among other perks, that you can buzz fellow police officers’ homes as a joke occasionally.  Being a Helicopter Officer also means you could, if you wanted, harass anybody you wanted without any repercussions.  You can follow them around, shine a spotlight into their bedroom, wake them up at 2 a.m., and more.  You know that nobody can stop you—and nobody would believe your victims’ complaints because as soon as they talk about “helicopters” people will think they are crazy.

 

WHY THEY HATE DAVID

If anything is certain, it is that the Mesa Police Helicopter Police hate David DeGroote.

 

It all probably started as a joke—although David is not certain.  He was out working in his backyard when a Mesa Police Helicopter flew up and hovered over him with officers leaning out the door.  In retrospect, he should have ignored them or laughed it off—an officer friend of the family probably put them up to it.  Instead, David made the mistake of flipping them off. David admits that this was not a wise thing to do.

 

David is an officer of the court—a process server—and that evening, at every house he went to serve court documents, the helicopter buzzed him.  David called the police department and complained about it.  He did not realize to what extent the Helicopter Police are untouchable and not accountable to anyone.  The Helicopter Police, however, were going to give him and, unfortunately, his family and neighbors an education.

 

At first it wasn’t too bad. At first you think it is mere coincidence—they are only in the neighborhood for something else.  What sane person would go to this sort of effort?  But just how many times do the helicopters have to fly over your particular home before you become suspicious that they are indeed targeting you.

 

From the Helicopter Police perspective, it really doesn’t take that much to divert your flight plan a little to buzz low over somebody’s home.  And if you have something legit going on near the neighborhood—why not hover near your favorite “troublemaker’s” home.  This is common procedure—one of the perks of being in a helicopter.  Somebody flips you off, you add them to the Buzz List.  You can bug who you want—and can have sweet deniability.  In fact, this is what the Helicopter Police were doing on November 3, 2006.  They had just finished up an operation near David’s house and drifted over to pay him a visit.  Their lights were off as they hovered.  Somebody on the ground flashed a flashlight on them briefly.  The police were enraged.

 

They cordoned off the street and began banging and kicking the DeGroote family’s doors without identifying themselves.  One detective even put on surgical gloves to turn off the power to their home (independent fingerprinting evidence confirmed this and identified the detective).  Eventually they turned the power back on and left.

 

 

David put a security camera system on the home with multiple cameras and audio recording capability.  Whereas before the flashlight incident the harassment was sporadic, now it became unbearable—extending to endangerment and a recklessness far beyond anything they accused David of. 

 

What follows is a partial record of the harassment of David, his wife Terry, his teenage daughter Jocelyn, and his two underage boys.  These are recorded on his home security camera system, handheld video cameras, and the accounts of the witnesses.  Calls to the police, of course, are recorded and available to verify times of complaints when they occurred.  Keep in mind that there is no other purpose for these flybys except to harass David.  It is a psychological warfare designed to break him down and intimidate him.  This is why they did not just restrict it to David—but to his completely innocent wife and little children.  If they couldn’t break him directly—just increase the pressure by terrorizing his family.