Art - I think you'd better stop there, although the ones you were talking about are now better protected, I understand.
Most of those who do this job, and (as others have said) would far rather be in their beds at 0300, are acutely aware that the very significant majority of those they hover over are law-abiding citizens. However these residents also wish to see their property and community protected from the sh!tbags who like to spoil their environment. So there's a dilemma when policing such tasks from the air - keep the annoyance factor low by spending as little time overhead, or try to find the little b*ggar so that he/she doesn't terrorise some other family/household on
Sunday night!
Given that this sounds to have been close to Redhill, it's likely the team had a decent chance of getting to the job in a sensible timescale - not often possible in the last 20 months - so they'd probably spend a little longer searching for the suspect than if they'd flown a lot further for a similar job!!
You can have effective policing, or you can whinge until you get none - the residents' choice, and "threatening" FOI is the lowest form of bribery - it's one of the biggest drains of public money yet devised.
