Mersyside would be a good place to collect data on the possible effects of NPAS.
They have lost an aircraft from Liverpool, and the others carry out cross border ops as a matter of course. It's almost a mini NPAS and it's pretty much running now.
How has the crime rate changed? How effective has it been getting an aircraft on scene in time? Do the boys on the ground even bother calling for air support? Do they feel more or less confident in their air support?
Surely these questions can be answered fairly easily, if anyone cared to ask them, officially.
"don't need to worry about results, that's for someone else to consider"
was well thought through and well considered by me before I wrote it. I still hold it true.
When Air Support is no longer tasked centrally every job will be a 'go' we will have no option to select jobs that we think we will get a result from(which is a basic tasking criteria). In which case our results will undoubtedly drop off.
As individuals at units we will just become like the beat bobby, radio goes we attend. That is where my much observed quote comes in, we will have to get to the point where we "don't need to worry about results, that's for someone else to consider" because if we don't we will drive ourselves mad. We will have to learn to live by this, for NPAS a result will be, our aircraft attended within the given time.
The Police service very rarely publish arrest figures, they just deal with response times, did the Police arrive on time that's all. So be realistic, do you really think that at Command level they really worry how many people are arrested each day other that the impact it has on custody? They are more worried about, did they make the 9's was the phone answered on time, or the main figure the public seem interested about, the detection rate.
I respect the views of ever poster here, my post with that quote has sparked a debate, that's what is missing with NPAS, there is no debate. Sadly on PPRuNe the debate only starts when more considered opinions come along. I did laugh at the Englebert and packet of maltesers comment though.
If you don't think the world has changed, turn on the news more. Watch a program like Newsnight, read a paper (a real one) or better still engage in a debate once in a while.
On a final note, I a not a Sir, I have been very careful throughout to not give away my gender, grade or race, it has a way of polarising a debate that I don't want to get into.
What I will say, is I will ( hopefully) be part of NPAS, though not a big part. I will turn up get changed, go to calls and go home. I will,work hard because that is what I am paid to do. I will not go home and worry that we did not get a result because I have matured enough to realise that they all 'will come again'
I look forward to the sensible debate, this post will create.
WF, you have your opinion and I have mine; they need not agree, in fact that is the very essence of debate. I just hope that you don't find my views insulting and condescending. I am sure that time will tell that you have made a great number of very valid points but it would take a better person than I to discern them at present.
I think that we have had our debate and I wish you all the best for the future but am unable to share your model of the world.
WF. Just because you are of the opinion that a job is not worth attending does not make it a bad job, it just demonstrates an arrogance that is quite unhealthy. And after being told to attend a job not giving a hoot about the results of that job is, in my view, a dereliction of the responsibilities of the attending crew to the Bobbies on the ground. This is of course only my opinion and forms part of a larger debate I am sure.
I have never said that jobs are not worth attending, neither have I said that I will attend calls and not give 100%. What I have said is, I will not tear myself appart with worry that we didn't get a result.
We can debate this all day but it's like debating the sunrise, it's gonna happen.
Last edited by Wagging Finger; 16th Aug 2012 at 18:37.
This has gone beyond my sphere of knowledge! I thought we were all riding on the back of a giant cosmic tortoise, next you will be telling me the moon isn't made of cheese.
I know that linking a sunrise to NPAS may be a metaphor but, as you said "like", it was, I believe, a simile. However, actually knowing what a metaphor is still isn't helping me to see what you mean.
Ok, it like debating the sunrise (an almost enivitable event)...........no matter how much the event ( and you can place your own inevitable event, death, taxes etc here) is debated, it will happen. Is that a simple enough explanation?
Honestly, WF, simplification was not what your statements required; quite the reverse.
(And I really do apologise to everyone else that I'm having to go into this)
I understand what a metaphor is, I understand what a simile is and I understand that you were trying to say that NPAS (like a sunrise) would happen regardless of what we said.
There was no need to explain that further, really there wasn't.
I was merely asking who here had indicated that NPAS wouldn't happen?
We are all aware that it is happening, that's what we're debating, how it will affect us and the job that we do. Nobody doubts that the sun will rise on October 1st (see what I did there, that's a metaphor) but we still have a lot to discuss.
Mark Twain once said that you should never argue with an idiot because, from a distance, people won't be able to tell the difference and I really shouldn't have allowed myself to be dragged in but I just had to have one last go at explaining my frighteningly simple question. I feel like I'm banging my head against a brick wall, here. (That, in case you're wondering, WF, is a simile).
Who said that it wasn't going to happen and did you think that's what we'd been talking about?
