Looking at the broader picture plod needs size 10's on the beat again with less emphasis on hitting soft targets like motorists.
in the days of dixon from dock green maybe. Now it's different. The scum bags are using differing techniques and the police need to shift with them.
Yeah kids used to chase around in nicked cars. Helicopters stopped that cause every time they did it traffic cops flooded the estates and found them. Now its a different story.
Kids don't nick cars to race around in, they are the bottom of the food pile for crime groups using there skills to their ends. Now the cars get nicked, parked up and if the police don't find them in a few hours with or with out tracking devices then they are out of the country on a boat.
There nicking cars that are far quicker than the crap ford focuses and the police can't all afford fleets of scoobies. So you need to change methods. Even if you do drop in behind a stolen Audi A5 rs quattro if they drive like a loon (and they do) you can't catch them. Hence air support. It must work cause one of the choppers got torched.
Yes your taxes are paying for this,so are mine. But if they don't get caught and the police do something about it then you car insurance will go up. Your house insurance will start asking what cars do you have and that will go up. That is also a tax.