Paarmo - congratulations - you certainly have the knack of stirring up some lively comments, but I do have to take exception to your comment :
[Core policing can only be done by Police Officers and the only way to do it is to free up all Police Officers possible to do it and sub contract other duties to civilians.
Really ? - That is the law according to who ? - You ?
The ONLY way ? - Naaah - If more "proper" Police Officers were employed, i.e the establishment were increased, then that would do the trick too - surely ?
( ignoring the argument that Police Air Obsevers ARE involved in Core Policing - from the air ).
You do seem to be getting a little emotive, and on the face of it appear to have some sort of an axe to grind against warranted Police Officers employed as Police Air Support Unit Observers. It is of course your right to have such an opinion, but it seems that those "in the know" disagree with you, and that no matter what is discussed here, you will not be disuaded from your opinion.
I would agree that there are various roles performed by Police Officers that should be examined to determine if they could be performed by a civillian, freeing up that Police Officer to patrol the streets, ( in fact this question is often considered - particularly in light of financial cutbacks ).
The real difficulty is in determining exactly which roles these are, and it seems that the role of Police Observer has been considered by the vast majority of Police forces and REJECTED.
In this day and age of accountability you can bet your bottom dollar that it is not just the employment costs that have been looked at in reaching this conclusion, but the effectiveness of the service provided too.
Most Air Support Units operate with 10 to 12 Police Officer observers, depending on size of force, operating hours etc, and releasing those Officers to patrol the streets will only have a minimal effect, on what you describe as "Core Policing".
This needs to be balanced against the cost of recruiting, training and equipping new civillian staff, plus any possible ( but not guaranteed ) savings in salary, and also taking into account the potential for reduction in quality of service, loss of experience, and loss of confidence in the service provided etc.
It is easy to say "Civilianise the role of Police Observer", and I am convinced that if doing so would prove to be cost effective AND would have no detrimental effect on the service provided, then more Police forces would have done so by now, and those that have, would not have regretted that decision, and be looking at returning to employment of only warranted Police Officer Observers at the earliest oportunity.
