How do you propse they track criminals and look for canabis farms otherwise then?

Cannabis farms could be easily tracked with a small purpose designed drone costing less than a couple of hundred thousand pounds and that would be much cheaper to run and could fly with thermal cameras detecting farms, It could also do the entire country without much problem in stages, so no need for lots of them. Also once smart meters are installed it would be no trouble at all to detect who is using more electricity than normal.

As to tracking criminals they could be tracked just as easily by more police on the streets. If you need helicopters have them flying at a higher altitude so that pilots have more time to react in case of catastrophic failure.

From everything I seen in the news about cannabis farms they tend to bypass the electric meter anyway so I suspect smart meters won't make much of a difference.
If a helicopter suffers catastrophic failure then the higher up it is surely just means you'll end up with a bigger crater when it comes down.

But it would also allow the pilots more time to guide the chopper to somewhere more safely and even bail out. The issue is that they are too low over buildings. Maybe more regular safety inspections or black boxes as an interim.

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No. The issue is the catastrophic failure. If a failure is catastrophic, it must by definition cause a catastrophe.

Any failure that allows the pilot time to land safely does not cause a catastrophe, and therefore is not a catastrophic failure.

A failure that forces an aircraft to the ground is a critical failure

We do not know the cause of this accident yet and may not for many months. When there is a drive failure it could be down to the snapping of a key component. With aircraft they x ray many key components to look for the initial signs of stress which will lead to a critical failure. They can then replace that part before it is a risk. Maybe helicopter engines might have to be inspected more thoroughly and regularly?

Clutha helicopter crash: AAIB finds 'no evidence' of mechanical fault

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-g ... t-25306936