John Holt, both as a member of the Paragons and as a solo artist, had established himself as the master of pop with a multitude of love, love lost, and other typically pop-themed hit singles.

However, with Police in Helicopter, the singer reinvented himself as a more contemporary, cultural artist. The title track, a Jamaican smash, set the defiant tone, threatening, "If you continue to burn up the herbs, we're going to burn down the cane fields."