Originally Posted by
ShyTorque
I’m afraid you think wrong - I can assure you that they did. I was one of the QFI instructors involved and somewhere I still have my RAF logbook entries and the course photos. It was carried out under the “Aid to the Civil Power” training scheme. I also flew an RAF aircraft with a police observer who carried a police radio and was in air/ground contact with local traffic police, part of an experiment controlling a rolling road block for a major event.
I don't dispute the Cold War training the RAF did with the police before Police Air Ops units were common, but I took from your original post that RAF trained Police Observers for Police Units. I know it was looked at mid 90s-ish when, the Home Office Advisor at the time, arranged for a couple of Merseyside Police Observers to complete the ground elements of the QHI course with a view to Shawbury using excess aircraft/staff to train Police Observers but it didn't progress beyond that point. So yes, the RAF did train Bobbies to assist in mapping post strike info until the wall came down but I still think that they didn't train them for Police Air Ops units per se.