Originally Posted by
homonculus
SS. The answers are:
dont know
the other end of the uplink
my views on police being doctors are well known
yes
no
yes
fire and ambulance can do it
My point, being a little more serious, was that there is a need to consider the proper spending of taxpayers' money. Nobody is suggesting a drone could do all tasks but if they could do a significant proportion that would still save money, stop Jay winging because more helicopter missions would be worthwhile, and stop that pestering noise over my bedroom hour after hour!!
Hospital A and E is another area where public money is wasted.
Over 75% are actually non emergencies and at weekends the result of over indulgunce in drink.
For real serious police work NPAS are a vital tool.
However they appear from their twitter posts to be at the trivial but very expensive end of crime fighting.
Some more tweets here from NPAS.
https://mobile.twitter.com/npaslondon?lang=en
NPAS London @NPASLondon
#NPAS62 called to Hungerford Bridge to male wanting to jump in the river. Male located and talked local officers to him & led of bridge.
So how was a helicopter crew going to help that case? Locals saw him,reported it and ground officers talked him down.
Here is a typical London police helicopter operation.
[quote]NPAS London @NPASLondon
Over Central London for a number of demonstrations. We are providing downlink imagery. Are we being watched?�� [QUOTE]
This was a London demonstration by the right wing English Defence League. I take it that was the most exciting picture the NPAS crew obtained. On a par with a normal day in Trafalgar Square.
The truth is it was.
At least 14 people have been arrested after rival groups clashed during protests in central London, the Metropolitan police have said.
Fewer than 300 members of the far-right groups Britain First and the English Defence League turned up for their “march against terrorism”, a turnout castigated by opponents as a lame attempt to whip up Islamophobia in the wake of the Westminster attack.
source
https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...o-london-march
The route is listed below but all covered by hundreds of ground based CCTV monitored by the Metropolitan Police.
The helicopter used for the above demonstration was superfluous to the CCTV and officers on the ground unless the protest march got out of hand? A couple of
freelance drone operators would have saved thousands of pounds of taxpayers money.
Why not wait to launch the helicopter if it was needed?
However the Met Police like to pull out all the toys in the box for high profile events while ignoring drug dealing street criminals,organised knife gangs and over 94% of burglaries they fail to solve.
If police aviation really did solve more than petty crime then the various Police Camera Action tv shows producers would have focussed on that. The reality is most NPAS operations are routine,boring and very expensive.