Hello All,
As a ex-mil civvie (and happily so) pilot who flies for a Police Air outfit, I concur completely with Zorba in his points. For someone to say that civvies are unable to carry out the role of Air Observer, I would say they are mistaken in that it all depends on the individual operator.
Some coppers are good, some are not and struggle through. Same with civvies. The way I see it, it boils down to a few clear points:
- What is the cost/benefit of it? If it saves no money, then why worry about it.
- Can the Air Wing get recruits from the groundpounders. I know in some places there has been a freeze on Police due to funding, but this somehow does not include public servants, so you might be able to fill vacancies this way.
- If you need to have the powers of arrest, then case closed, police only. If the powers are needed rarely, then this might not be an issue.
- Training - a rigorous selection process will weed out poor recruits and if they don't make the training curve, get rid of them. Which is easier to get rid of? I'm not sure but in Oz, coppers can be removed tout suite from the unit to places like Warakirna (its not nowhere, but you can see it from there).
Most people could become a good Air Operators with the right training. My son would make a great sensor operator as his fingers whizz around the XBox console when I'm going ???????? does this button do.
I'm sure some uniformed members will disagree and guard their patch, but at least the potential for civvy AO's should be explored as an option for those who do not already have them.
