FFF - I fear that can-do, motivation, self-worth etc were all things that may have been somehwat overlooked in the desperate drive to ensure things were in place for a politically-driven, and already delayed, 1st October.
Sadly the delay was caused, IMHO, by a decision to "let go", for a year, the only aviation expert the organisation need most, instead relying on the goodwill of a few busy people to provide gratis advice in their very limited spare time. There was a
*mistaken
* (
*..* =
substitute adjective of choice) belief that the Police had enough expertise to do the job without such experience which, now that it's back on-board, has been having to work all hours, and more, just to ensure a foot could be jammed in the door in time.
Although we're at the end, or the beginning (depending on how you look at this week in the annals of Air Support), there is still plenty of work to do to ensure that the door is opened wide enough to let the others in, or possibly out - although either seems to have been made more difficult by the mountain of admin that seems to have been piled behind it!
TF - thank you for acknowledgement of some points, although I would have to disagree that a keen voice will not necessarily be that of an Officer, any more than a Civvy, and the guy/gal on the ground will not care a jot who's providing it, if they're getting the service they need. As we've debated before, my views remain that a smattering of Civvy TFOs would do no harm, although I've never advocated complete civilianisation as, you're quite correct, just the knowledge of it would ensure credibility with the ground troops would evaporate in an instant.
However, if you can train a Police Officer to use
specialist equipment s/he's never seen before in a
specialist environment s/he's never worked in before, it should not be beyond the wit of man to train a professional aviator to pick up the vagaries of the Police job in the air - neither requires a degree. The military aviator has spent a career searching for, catching (& sometimes despatching) both goodies & baddies - the chase is in the blood, just as it is for the Police. The only hinderance is the pile of admin behind the door!
