The emergency services are reactive. When we patrolled London in a Bell 47 back in the 80s we were forever finding that we were in the wrong part of town but we did manage to improve the reaction time a little and every now and then we were in exactly the right spot (which was pretty important in a B47). In Glasgow we found that we had an hourly budget to stay within and couldn't waste any time patrolling so it's not surprising that with such a vast area to cover we were sometimes a bit slow getting on top. Being the only chopper in Scotland (police chopper that is) didn't help.
Some days might be spent drinking coffee and listening to the radio but had we been suckered into a AA flight then, good as that might be for our
PR profile, it meant that we could not be around when the boys on the ground cried for help which is what we were hired to do.
It may not be well known but when the contract first AA in the country was about to be signed the D & C Constabulary came along and offered the use of
a second West Country Police Helicopter if we pulled out of the AA idea.
I often wonder what would have happened if that offer had been accepted for upon that model the other AA projects were born.
G