Charlie S charlie, I have flown an R22 and been in a crash in one (not my fault I might add) so I do feel qualified to slag it off when the opportunity arises. Quite a few military instructors have R22 experience because you need the piston time to instruct in civvy street - many mil pilots hold civvy licences as an insurance policy in the event of being posted somewhere awful and having to resign.
The speed requirement for a training aircraft is important as a mil pilot needs to learn to navigate and fly at low level (100') at 120 kts during training as most front-line aircraft fly at least that fast.
The training profiles vary greatly from sortie to sortie but the aircraft might go from spending a hour and a half manoeuvring at low level at high speed, to an hour of engine off landings, to an hour of USLs, to mountain flying, to NVG work etc.etc. I'm not saying an R44 couldn't hack these individual disciplines (apart from not having an NVG compatible cockpit) but could it keep doing it day after day and remain as serviceable as the Squirrel does.
Then when you need to detach for a long range nav, can you get 4 pax plus all their kit in a 44 without having to seriously compromise on fuel load?
As for the police issue, I am sure that every Chief Inspector would love to have helicopters airborne 24/7 as a visible deterrent to the bad boys, much as they would like lots of bobbies on the streets all the time. Our rising crime rates have a lot to do with the visibility, or lack of it, of the Police; if you think you can get away with something because no-one is watching you are more likely to try.
I don't think it is the fact that there are quite a few ex-mil guys in the CAA that makes them so restrictive, just because one wears a uniform it does not make you a blinkered automaton incapable of independent thought (unless you are in the US Army!!!).