When we did winching in the Puma, we were not SSE in the hover. In Belize at high AUW we were hardly SSE in the cruise at times!! Hot and high, it seemed like the only place you were going was down, albeit slowly.
A winch is a piece of role equipment, thats all. Think outside the box SARBoys, rescuing casualties is not the only thing you can use it for. The helicopters have been fitted with points for fast roping and other roles. Politics are involved, capabilities now have to be met by the police that used to be covered by other agencies. I am sure the Met did a big press release and a TV show about their new toys, including the perceived roles.