A side note: the helicopter involved was a STARS air ambulance, not a police aircraft. STARS is, as I understand it, a private not-for-profit foundation (with, I might add, a fine reputation -- and a friend in need for those who won't survive a ground ambulance trip). Since they land in all sorts of impromptu places, the night vision gear makes sense; but they are not primarily a SAR outfit.

A second aside: they recently moved operations to a nearby airport and have been making training runs over my house. Sweet little chopper, I think. http://www.stars.ca/what-we-do/helicopter-air-ambulance/our-helicopter-fleet