NPAS or not, they won't be able to stop banter - it's an integral part of the job, thank goodness
It might, however, be put on hold while everyone tries to make sense of the NPAS paper mountain!
Whilst the Civvy vs Police argument has been aired more often than one would like to mention, I hope posters will draw some solace from the fact that the officer on the ground has no idea who is crewing the aircraft, especially if s/he's getting a good service. Some on here forget that potential Observers, with Military backgrounds, have had instilled in them a highly professional attitude to work & service, along with a desire, & many skills, to search & catch (or destroy) the "baddies" that some Police would do well to emulate. The "pension behind them issue" shows a sense of jealousy or cynicism that should not have any bearing on the matter, although the ability to get rid of under-performing individuals is much more important, certainly from an HR point of view.
In addition, the small periods of downtime that NPAS predicts, as a result of spare aircraft, previously not available, could be well used for training; loaning to other units for professional improvement (out of area / differences / reducing the myth of useless "Civvy Obs" from those with entrenched views!); presentations to Ground Officers / Control Rooms; the list goes on. At a busy unit (1200hrs + per year,
without spare aircraft), there is seldom time for these important, but invariably unachievable, "extras" as Officers are dragged back to the streets to infill holes left by overstretched local Forces, leaving little time to apply the polish to the aviation service we provide.
Some people need to grow up, smell the roses, accept compromise & realise that we can work with & for NPAS (even though we're having to cut to a lowest-common-denominator service at the moment, just to prove that there's a better way) to bring things back up to a world-class service that many of us have been operating, or striving for, for many years. Yes, it will be different, but so is everything else in almost every other walk of life. Let's do the best job we can do with the tools we've got, and work to persuade those who've never done it that, actually, those who've done it for a while have some pretty good ideas, and are also SPECIALISTS in the job they do - and should be rewarded appropriately as officers with more "specialist" skills than almost any other. I'm sure we'll get there, but it may be hard work - which never hurt anyone, did it?
P.S. Like the badge, SS - do you do one with a 902?