So these fixed wing assets aren’t fit for purpose. Many were saying from the outset (myself included) that they were the wrong aircraft for the role, for many reasons. It’s a travesty that all this public money is being wasted, simply cast aside it seems.
The rationale for the forming of NPAS was to save money whilst improving efficiency. The organisation has failed miserably on both counts and it seems to get worse as more time goes by.
As a founder member and ex chief pilot* of a now disbanded police ASU, I can no longer bear to watch police “camera action” type TV programmes because I get frustrated seeing how the public and police drivers are often unnecessarily put at risk during vehicle pursuits due to the failure of NPAS to provide a helicopter. The unit I flew for had a good record of the police drivers being able to back off and sometimes even switch off their blue lights once we arrived overhead, which had the effect of calming a “fail to stop” situation. We could still provide continuity of evidence which still resulted in arrests, but with less risk to those on the ground, including innocent members of the public. One can only wonder how much more money has been wasted due to unnecessary damage to police vehicles caused during these incidents.
Bringing in more and more personnel to committees and studies at this late stage (at high cost) seems to indicate desperation. They should have listened to the qualified and experienced aviation experts already in post.
*I wish to make it clear that I wasn’t put out of a job by the formation of NPAS. I had already moved on from police aviation quite some years before it was formed.