idle stop,
I don't disagree, but I suspect that the number of half-baked and and less effective ASUs will increase over the next few years. The people making decisions about Air Suppport are usually ignorant of how it works and what it does and does not do. As others have said previously the decisions are focussed on short-term goals and targets, not effective policing, sadly.
To some extent the UK police aviation community is partly to blame. We have never really taken the trouble to document what we do and what affects our effectiveness. It may be self-evident to us, but it is not us who are in charge.
The news from the NE is really very sad. I hope that someone records how things change when they drop to one aircraft. However, those who have made the decision have every incentive to hide those changes.
When we get spread so thinly we will be consigned to doing missing person searches and photography, with endless pointless transits to jobs that are long gone. I wonder how long the scrotes will take to notice?