I Know I shouldn't but:
Paarmo, I believe you are referring to the Police Air Operations Certificate.
In our unit,
Civilians train the Police as air observers. No. Police Officers do.
Civilians check that the Police are operating safely and correctly in accordance with their licence. Correct if you mean the CAA Flight Ops Inspectors and ours was formerly a Police Pilot.
Civilians drive the aircraft. Correct, but in our unit, all ex mil because they all have thousands of hours of “Operational” experience and are used to working with and for the ground units that they support.
Civilians maintain the aircraft. Correct, but our engineer cut his teeth in the mil and has an understanding of “Operational requirements”.
Civilians direct the aircraft to jobs. Wrong. Civilians request on behalf of the police officers on the ground. Police officers decide whether the task is accepted or not. Once the task has been accepted it is generally useful if they don’t get involved unless asked for.
Civilians co ordinate the ground response. Wrong. That is done between the ground commander and the Police Observers.
You were all once civilians. Correct.
You will all become civilians once again. Correct, I already am – but I still think in an “Operational” way when I am doing the job.
Yet you are resistant to civilians sitting alongside you and doing an observers job. Wrong. I regularly operate with a “Civilian” Observer. But, prior to that he had been a Police Observer for 10 years and didn’t need to be trained as one. Prior to that he had 20 years of pounding the beat in the same area he now patrols from the air. Given enough peanuts we could train a monkey to do the job. The problem is we don’t have anywhere near enough peanuts. A 2 week course is barely enough to teach someone any more than the basics of being a police observer and how to operate the equipment. If you have to teach them to think like a police officer the course would drag on for an unacceptable length of time.
A police officer in a helicopter, with all the available role equipment, is a police officer with a greater range of tools in his toolbox than those on the ground with which to detect and deter crime, search for the missing, the absconded and the hiding. Using the knowledge and experience that they gained whilst “Bobbies on the beat”, chasing crims through estates and gardens and knowing the places that they will hide is what makes the Air Support Team so effective.
Annoythemouse and pieboy are spot on. Listen to those in the know. Your research was not thorough enough.