Having a national "air wing" for the police is all fine and dandy.
However. It's only fine and dandy if all your going to be doing is notional missing person searches to tick boxes, high profile public order work, or pre-planned operations.
However if you want to want actually catch any criminals, findany missing persons, or god forbid actually drop on a pursuit, then localism is the key..
Adding extra layers of command/comms is not the way to go, neither is having a/c response times of 30 mins or more...
Furthermore. Local knowledge of Officers in the a/c is priceless.
So yes. A national unit may have some advantages. But if you want to get some ACTUAL results... policing your local area is the key.
Last edited by morris1; 3rd Mar 2013 at 16:34.