I agree that some “misper” searches can be very resource hungry. I was involved in some that were a complete waste of resources… in some cases because the persons weren’t actually missing. A couple of examples:
One involved a so-called vulnerable person who had disappeared from a care home in the midlands. He was found safe and well the following day, having decided to take a holiday at Blackpool and was at the seaside funfair enjoying himself. The search tied up the force helicopter for a whole day and part of the next.
A tourist had been reported missing to the police after she failed to return a bicycle to a countryside hire shop at the end of the day. A significant percentage of the local police, including the force helicopter, were called to an RV point near the hire shop for an operational briefing. As the briefing was taking place, the missing lady appeared with the bicycle on her car’s roof rack. She explained that as far as she was concerned, she had hired the bicycle for 24 hours and therefore she was returning it 24 hours later.
The first job in particular was an instance of when a drone could have sufficed at far less expense.
However, vehicle pursuits are better done with a helicopter, for what should be obvious reasons - but only if the helicopter is close enough to get on scene at the time. Unfortunately, those in charge of NPAS failed to understand that. Reducing the number of helicopter bases by almost half and replacing them with an unsuitable fixed wing based some forty five minutes flying time away was never going to work. A fixed wing aircraft can patrol an area more economically and for longer than a helicopter but other than that it has no practical advantage, especially if it flies no faster than the helicopters it replaces and takes far longer to get airborne in the first place. A helicopter can land almost anywhere and can transport personnel and search dogs. It can also transport personnel from the scene, such as those needing urgent medical assistance, where there is no other resource to do it.