Tigerfish - how are you old boy? Glad you are still as passionate now as you were when we met not so long ago!
You must have misinterpreted what I was trying to say. Let me re-iterate:
The 'model' isn't bust, it is the machine which encompasses it that was never right in the first place.
I am always for "police officers" in helicopters - long may it last.
What irked me then and still does is the way one 'new' UEO seems to be averse to learning from the other more seasoned UEO across the border. They would rather bite their hand off than copy their peers SOP's. Hence a lot of time and money is wasted learning how to run an AOU.
The same goes for buying the hardware.
Finally - when you look at how C.C's run their business - they are contracted individuals, paid considerable (some say too much) money to build a bureaucratic monolith around policing - introducing schemes that they have lifted from elsewhere which simply don't fit into modern day British policing at times. Their 'leverage' over air support has stifled the Home Office's plans for the future which is to streamline air support and to do away with re-inventing the wheel. Too many bosses and not enough injuns!!
One a/c type / always a core police crew (not necessarily all police though
) and a Captain of Industry running a region.
Modern policing using modern ideas and modern equipment.
Take care.