Last summer, flight trackers picked up a Phoenix Police Department helicopter spelling out the name “ALEX” with its flight path over a Maryvale neighborhood. Later that year, according to police records released to Phoenix New Times, the department found that the pilot engaged in unprofessional conduct.
New Times first reported on the unusual flight path last July, when the pilot’s flight path was posted to Reddit. At the time, there was no public information about the purpose of the flight or the helicopter’s pilot, or whether the pilot was spelling their own name or someone else’s.
Public records now reveal the pilot to have been 48-year-old officer Alexander Crabbs, who was indeed spelling out his own name over the west Phoenix neighborhood just north of Interstate 10. According to documents, an inquiry about the flight from New Times sparked a review by the police department’s Professional Standards Bureau…