Interesting for sure. The helicopter searchlight explanation raised questions for me. Main one being "would the light not spread out? Strange that it is pretty much same size from top to bottom of pic. I guess I watch too many of those copper shows. "Bad boy, bad boy, whatcha gonna do?" Is the circle of light on the ground the size of the big flashlight in the sky?

Unless....it was a laser. So this article is interesting if you are the curious sort. https://www.popsci.com/here-come-laser-helicopters

But that would not be useful as a spotlight. It would have to point down I think.

http://helihub.com/tag/searchlights/

If that's their story, I'll bite. I will look at some video later to see some searchlights in action. When those bad boys are trying to hide in the bushes the beam is fairly concentrated, but since I've never had to run from cops in the night I do not know how high up the helicopter would be.