Not all Met observers are Police Officers. As I understand, one of them is an Ops controller who has done the observer's course in-house. Despite being extremely competent, said observer is restricted to front seat duties only, not because of any lack of ability, but so as to protect police observer posts. Wouldn't want to let the cat out of the bag that 'civvies' given the right training and sourced from an appropriate background can be every bit as effective as a police officer.
