Silso,
What I meant about civilian observers being less flexible during down time is this.
They will have a job description and a contract and there is a requirement to work within that scope.
The Police Officer's role is more wide spread, yes he/she will have a job description, but it is bound to include the basic role of being a Police Officer contained within it.
When my a/c was off line for an extended period, say a couple of weeks, it was routine to "loan" the observer police officers back to an operational division. In my experience that never did any harm and indeed it often did a shed load of good to remind the guys what the real sharpe end was like.
In similar fashion,- in order to extend the experience base of new observers who were on the reserve list, we sometimes gave them a temporary 3 month posting to the unit in order to build experience and confidence. At the same time so as not to exceed our establishment, one of the regular observers would return to division to "re chip" on basic patrol duties. Please understand this was NOT a punishment measure, merely a way of preventing staleness from setting in. Most of the observers quite liked the experience.
I hear some of the others saying that in their experience the civilian observer is fine, and I must accept that their experience will be more up to date than mine. But I must come back to the fact that we are talking about a POLICE aircraft, engaged in very front line Policing. I believe that both the public and the Police Service, would be happier if it contained at least one Police Officer as part of its crew.
Policing is changing, and old codgers like me must accept that fact I agree. But given that in this case there is very little financial benifit in employing civilians as observers, and there is some risk in losing the effectiveness of this vital but expensive resource, are you really that enthusiastic about enforcing that change?
Or are you really saying that the Police Officer is only good enough to fight in the gutter outside the dog and duck every saturday night? Specialist roles are too good or too complicated for him/her?
Are you really saying that all the Police Officer observers, who took this art of Police Aviation onwards from the early 80's through to what it is today, were a waste of time? That they shouldn't have done it, and didn't add any value?
Are you really saying, that without their dedication and enthusiasm, the art of Police Air Support would be just as far ahead as it is today? Bah! Rubbish!
I suspect that if it had all been left to the Politicians, or the accountants, or and, I am almost afraid to say it, Senior Military advisors, it would either have not happened at all, or if it did, we would still be using a mixture of Gazelles, Lynx's and Sea kings to try and stop vehicle crime. Radio communications would not have progressed to the point that it is today, nor FLIR or most of the other Police kit. Yes, Yes, - I know that the military had it first, but I don't think that it would have been so specialised or police orientated as it is now.
Nevertheless, I do have every respect for the help and guidance that our ex military pilots gave us (And a smaller number of civilian pilots). They are in my opinion quite simply the best in the world. Anyone who can keep us safe on a black rainy night in the hover or tight orbit, has my total and undying respect. Remember we are talking about Northern hemisphere British weather!
We were the best by 2004, but admittedly expensive, and some changes were inevitable. But I am seriously worried that some one is in real danger of destoying all that we worked so hard to build up.
Something seems to be in danger of going down the plug hole with the bath water !
tigerfish
Last edited by tigerfish; 6th Oct 2012 at 18:49.
Reason: Grammer