TC
headsethair was merely developing the line of thought introduced by Shawn Coyle. Why on earth does this make him a sad person? Maybe you're the sad person if you're unable to accept an alternative argument.
Although many of the police forces in the UK do manage to operate twins effectively now, I would argue that this is necessarily the most cost-effective option as much of the time the helicopters are sitting on the ground because of cost restraints. If those forces with large rural areas and/or less densely populated suburban areas had available a single piston helicopter such as the R44 or Schweizer (as are used quite safely and effectively by many forces in America), they would probably have the ability to patrol for a much larger number of hours per day. The (expensive) twins could then be used for those areas and times when singles were not appropriate. This would also, of course, lead to more job opportunities.
ppheli
I think the change from pistons to turbines coincided with the phasing out from Army/RM service of the Sioux and its replacement by the Gazelle. Once no piston helicopters were being flown operationally the piston was completely phased out. This led to a number of problems for ex-military instructors leaving and getting civil instructor jobs as some of them had to get the minimum requisite piston hours before they could start instructing! Most civil students have no great problem in transitioning from soemthing as small as a Robinson to soemthing as large and complex as the AS332L so it's interesting that the military persists in the greater expense of carrying out all basic training on turbine machines.