You spend 2 years being trained in your Probation. 4/5 years doing the job gaining " experience " and then join the air support unit. You attend a short training course and then join the flight crews as a junior member to gain "experience ". After 4/6 months you are considered " experienced ", You spend another 18 months on the crew and return to normal duties. Replaced by another " INEXPERIENCED " trainee. Seems to me that experience in aircrew observing is gained by work experience. Wouldn't it be better to employ someone whose whole working life was dedicated to gaining experience in the job rather than chopping and changing all the time.
Yes it probably would be cheaper as the observers would not be paid a Police Officers rate for obvious reasons but the experience contained within the unit would be invaluable rather than chopping and changing all the time. As an aside , how many civilians do you employ in the iniquitous central control rooms nowadays.I know some are crap, but there again so are some Police Officers.