On the brighter side...
I get frustrated by the negativity on here and will attempt some reasoning...
5 years ago, we had a thriving Police air support service with 33 bases UK wide
Then NPAS was created (and more importantly MASSIVE financial cuts to Policing by the tories) so we now have just 23 bases and a reduced service to what we had previously.
These cuts would have happened regardless of NPAS and base closures were likely to occur anyway.
This year, further cuts to Policing have been announced and the forces nationwide voted for a further reduction of 14% to air support. NPAS has achieved these savings by opting for a new 15 base 24 hr model with the introduction of some fixed wings (if they happen)
Clearly going from 33 bases down to 15 is going to be massively detrimental. Longer transit times / response times, less aircraft availability as they are all committed elsewhere, more strain to airframes, pilots, staff.
The last five years has seen a huge deterioration to UK air support. But is it NPAS to blame? or the root cause (huge over the top budget cuts from the tories)
OK I wont go as far to say that NPAS is perfect, far from it. But I think it is unfair to place all the blame onto NPAS.
Now rather than berate NPAS and pick on all the negatives, why not point out some improvements since NPAS?
- Borderless policing has definitely improved under NPAS. Never before have UK helicopters been so available to different forces, relatively promptly.
- We now have a nationwide downlink service and any aircraft can transmit images to any force now.
- The home office are working on a 4G voice/data network for UK aircraft and NPAS are a major voice now in how that will be set up - Pre NPAS, with individual bases, I doubt we would have had anywhere near the input NPAS have had in this.
- Sirocco. Although some negativity has been shown towards Sirocco, I totally disagree. I think it is an awesome system. Never before have all UK Police air support bases been able to share problems, issues, and have access to the system from any computer 24/7. If a problem occurs up north, the bases down south see the report as soon as its posted. The comments that NPAS prevent pilots / TFO's from reporting problems are unfounded imo. In fact, people have been praised by management on sirocco for reporting issues openly.
Yes, we have a worse service than before, but so does the entire Police service (and NHS, Teachers...)
Rather than pick on the bad points, let's embrace the good bits. those of us still working in the system still have some voice in where we go from here... maybe i'm a glass half full guy?
(insert outraged response towards woowooneenor here!!!!)