paarmo - I presume you are talking about the Falklands air bridge - the only reason we use civilian companies is because of the woeful lack of investment in the AT force and the fact they are stretched providing troop transports into the conflicts we find ourselves in. It is not done because of value for money or efficiency - it is just because we can't do it ourselves due to lack of resources.
Back to policemen in helicopters - on a job I did on Sunday rescuing 3 men from a crashed/sinking speedboat, the police heli was top cover and asked if we could keep hold of one of the men as they wanted to talk to him. We landed on the top of a headland closely followed by the police heli and the uniformed police observer was able to do what policemen do best - detect crime with the ability to detain if required. This would not have been possible with a civilian observer and would have required a ground policeman to be diverted from other duties to carry out the interview/arrest.
In rural areas I think it is vital to retain that police capability in the helicopter - they don't always work with ground units and having to wait for them to catch up could lead to losing the arrest completely.
Zorba - change is not always good and is often instigated for change's sake and not because there is a better alternative. The world is full of ambitious middle management who think their new initiative is better than the last blokes new initiative. Unfortunately there are those who cannot see that a task has been performed a certain way for many years for good reasons and insist on going through the painful process of reinventing the wheel. There is nothing Luddite about trying to save people from their own ambitions and trying to prevent real capability being lost for the sake of a few quid.