a police chopper isn't that high up surely you couldn't fall a safe distance to open the parachute before going splat, open it to soon and you'd be spinning around in the rotor.
Can't understand when you'd think you'd be spinning around the rotor, I know on film it looks like you go up when you open your chute, but trust me, you don't, it's just the camera guy falling faster than you.
Okay, the absolute lowest (and this IS gonna hurt) you can safely open a chute it about 200-250ft,(100ft IS possible and has been done, but you're gonna feel it, and probably get sectioned) oh and you'd need a static line from whatever you were jumping from to open it straightaway. If you want a little bit of freefall the min is about 500ft but 1000ft is safer.
Most pilots wouldn't exit the chopper, in the event of engine failure they would try to autorotate and glide down (again, this IS going to hurt, the "glide" angle is going to be about 4 to 1, so every 500ft gets you 2000ft to find somewhere soft) this is also the reason why the Merseyside Police helicopter always seems to be circling and not hovering, apart from using less fuel it also makes the transfer to autorotation easier than from a hovering status.
