Yeah. The argument is fallacy. The impression given to the media is that UAVs are superior to police helicopters because in this particular case the UAV was able to find him when other methods (including the police helicopter with standard NOD) was unable to find him.

Well yes, in this case that is what happened, but thats because of the sensor, not the platform. Thermals/FLIR can be (and are) carried by many police helicopters around the world. That department could have installed one on theirs instead of buying the UAV and it would have worked out the exact same way. Or hell, had a guy in the back carrying a handheld FLIR used by some firefighters. The police helicopter has more endurance than those little quadrotors.

I'm glad they found the guy, but there's so much drama regarding the use of UAVs nowadays and it really shouldn't be as big a deal as it is.