Originally Posted by
SilsoeSid
Serf, I would like to see you say that to face of the mother who has just been reunited with her six year old daughter who had been missing for four hours. How were they reunited? She was located in a gulley on the moors near to where they were staying by the police helicopter on a dark, wet, cold winters evening.
I often wonder why people like you have your opinion of police helicopters and their crews; I think it is because we always read the nice stories about casualties going to say thank you to the air ambulance crews that airlifted them .... but no one ever knocks on a police unit's door to say thank you.
I'm not knocking them, and I know many many police pilots. The OP asked are they really necessary; they are a nice to have, but absolutely necessary, then no. Policing will still happen without police helicopters, as it does in the vast majority of my part of the U.K.