TC, I am a little surprised by your comments, because I know you quite well, and have a great deal of respect for your wide experience of operational Air Support. But we are talking about POLICE Air support here no more & no less. We have always had great respect for the knowledge and experience of our professional experts (Our Pilots). But this was always and must remain a Police operation, for after all it is the Police service that picks up the bill at the end of the day.
HOWEVER, that said, to have a board with only one professional Pilot in a position of influence is I agree completely and demonstrably wrong. No wonder the wheel is coming off.
IMHO, the only way out of this mess is to call a halt. Reposition all 19 Aircraft closest to the main centres of population and therefor crime and ensure that the message goes out to operational commanders, - Your air support is back, now make use of it to lock up those ******ers that are wrecking your crime stats. Sadly I will be the first to acknowledge that that will leave many semi and rural areas uncovered until such time as we can rebuild the service.
Much brainier minds than mine will have to work out how that can be funded but it is clear that the forces that do not get a service must be relieved. This exercise of tying to run NPAS purely as an accountants model simply will not work. The criminal, who must be the target doesn't play by the accountants rules and the service has to get wise to that, or give up all together. I say again that by 2008 we led the World in Police Aviation, - now we are nowhere!
OK, I'm a wrinkly now, but I do know what makes the service tick, and its not Politics and its not accountants! Mutter mutter, - Bah!
TF