UK Police helicopter budget cuts
Sort of sorry to go off thread ..... [not really .... its Christmas] but this fits in with the current diversions asking whether there is enough room in the average police heliciopter...... it was not always so....
Oxford City Police, 1963. A dog named 'Danko' who loved his job.... Brantly B2 of BEAS.... aaaaaahh.... the nostalgia....
Oxford City Police, 1963. A dog named 'Danko' who loved his job.... Brantly B2 of BEAS.... aaaaaahh.... the nostalgia....
Purveyor of Egg Liqueur to Lucifer
If you do not know about the mess they made of yesterday you go and make the same old mistakes again... and again....
You were talking about dog mess, weren't you!?
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If you do not know about the mess they made of yesterday you go and make the same old mistakes again... and again....
No Wagging finger! It was when we went soft on criminality.
As a young cop I learned two valuable lessons.
(1) All criminals are volunteers, so >>>>>>
(2) Never be kind to a criminal. For to a criminal,- kindness is a weakness, and weaknesses are to be exploited.
Sounds harsh! But softness produces far too many innocent victims.
Tigerfish
AKA "Ol Grumpy"
As a young cop I learned two valuable lessons.
(1) All criminals are volunteers, so >>>>>>
(2) Never be kind to a criminal. For to a criminal,- kindness is a weakness, and weaknesses are to be exploited.
Sounds harsh! But softness produces far too many innocent victims.
Tigerfish
AKA "Ol Grumpy"
No, the overall mess started way before then.... Henry Fielding probably..... no wonder he was half hearted about the whole thing and left it to Peel some time later!
In the Rotorheads line I guess it was a bit more recent.... perhaps Juan de Cierva... possibly Sikorky for putting a tail rotor on the back..... seems Rotorheads have been arguing about that development ever since!
In the Rotorheads line I guess it was a bit more recent.... perhaps Juan de Cierva... possibly Sikorky for putting a tail rotor on the back..... seems Rotorheads have been arguing about that development ever since!
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keep smiling
As its nearly xmas, and to keep spirits up.
This fine officer might be an observer now with navigating skills like these!
Funny Police 009 - Video
I dont know if she meant to park it there though
And the other handler might want to take Pluto to this college..
YouTube - FUNNY POLICE DOGS!!!!!
This fine officer might be an observer now with navigating skills like these!
Funny Police 009 - Video
I dont know if she meant to park it there though
And the other handler might want to take Pluto to this college..
YouTube - FUNNY POLICE DOGS!!!!!
Last edited by lynx no more; 21st Dec 2010 at 18:33. Reason: pluto dog
Another one to put your head around.....
The plan to cut the Coastguard is out there.... they are after cutting the number of coastguard stations in Britain from 19 to eight, of which only three will operate round the clock. The service could lose 250 jobs as part of efforts to save £7.5M a year.
There is a plan....... but now there is a public consultation..... its all about a restructure to provide a Coastguard service into an organisation that is more efficient, more effective, more resilient, and one that gives [the remaining] Coastguard staff better job satisfaction, more attractive career opportunities than before, and an improved pay....... [heard all that before somewhere?]
HM Coastguard Proposals for Modernisation Consultation 2010
The consultation on the proposals will run until March 24 2011.
Bearing in mind that this will lead to savings and that police air support also wants saving through NPAS it is 'interesting' to note that those in the consultation process include all the emergency services and that among the airborne assets is Sky Watch CAP, a clear indication that this group is now being seen as a viable element in the emergency arena. There are other similar groups but they are not included. Bear in mind that the police input is general and there is no apparent direct interface with police air support.
SWCAP remain pretty much shunned by police air support at a local level but welcomed by those police forces without aircraft – particularly in Scotland. But they have the upper hand in direct feedback to the consultation.......
It is too early to gauge the thoughts of NPAS on them but might it be suggested that one element of the savings is sitting in little autogyros on an airfield near you?
The plan to cut the Coastguard is out there.... they are after cutting the number of coastguard stations in Britain from 19 to eight, of which only three will operate round the clock. The service could lose 250 jobs as part of efforts to save £7.5M a year.
There is a plan....... but now there is a public consultation..... its all about a restructure to provide a Coastguard service into an organisation that is more efficient, more effective, more resilient, and one that gives [the remaining] Coastguard staff better job satisfaction, more attractive career opportunities than before, and an improved pay....... [heard all that before somewhere?]
HM Coastguard Proposals for Modernisation Consultation 2010
The consultation on the proposals will run until March 24 2011.
Bearing in mind that this will lead to savings and that police air support also wants saving through NPAS it is 'interesting' to note that those in the consultation process include all the emergency services and that among the airborne assets is Sky Watch CAP, a clear indication that this group is now being seen as a viable element in the emergency arena. There are other similar groups but they are not included. Bear in mind that the police input is general and there is no apparent direct interface with police air support.
SWCAP remain pretty much shunned by police air support at a local level but welcomed by those police forces without aircraft – particularly in Scotland. But they have the upper hand in direct feedback to the consultation.......
It is too early to gauge the thoughts of NPAS on them but might it be suggested that one element of the savings is sitting in little autogyros on an airfield near you?
Avoid imitations
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There is a plan....... but now there is a public consultation..... its all about a restructure to provide a Coastguard service into an organisation that is more efficient, more effective, more resilient, and one that gives [the remaining] Coastguard staff better job satisfaction, more attractive career opportunities than before, and an improved pay....... [heard all that before somewhere?]
There are no limits
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Ok, seeing as no-one could answer the 'armchair quarterback' question, here is another
Has anyone ever actually acheived the same, or more, with less?
I have never seen it, anyone else?
Has anyone ever actually acheived the same, or more, with less?
a restructure to provide a ......... service ......... that is more efficient, more effective, more resilient
Just to extricate one paragraph from the 48 page document... and pull it to peices...
The current arrangement of the Coastguard dates back forty years ..... Eighteen Maritime Rescue Coordination Centres are spread across the UK, together with a small centre in London.
Each centre's systems are 'paired' with a neighbour allowing them to work together when necessary, but beyond these pairings the stations are not interoperable.
This means that the system suffers from a fundamental lack of resilience. In the event of a problem affecting both centres in a pair, it is not possible for an incident to be managed from another centre..... impossible to spread workloads across the system; so staff in one centre may be struggling to cope with call volumes while workloads in another may be low.... uneven workloads lessen resilience [good word that... used it twice], hamper staff development and lead to higher than necessary staff costs.
Aside from the head scratching moment of why whinge about no two centres being able to consistently work together and then reduce the sum total of the centres to two.... at which no doubt the staff will be much reduced ... and therefore be easily overcome by a lack of staff in moments of crises ...just one of the supposed faults at present..... I guess that the plan is to digitize it all so they can all speak to each other [or not] at a terrific price to install it and then to run it at a terrific cost .... [that goes with the story that 'some police officers directed to resort to text messages to call in to HQ']
I reckon that this is the first few days of another funding disaster.... 'lets save money' developing into cost overruns based on the cost of the proposed changes [the IT, comms, redundancy etc].
That line of thinking may just have a parrallel with the NPAS [we are supposed to be talking about!] in that no one has yet put forward the potential cost of plumbing in the BTP national network into the NPAS radio system. As each force developed the system locally there may be differences [despite the nominally central development] and what princely sum are Airwave central going to charge for the changes - no matter how minute? I bet its closer to a million than a thousand....
The current arrangement of the Coastguard dates back forty years ..... Eighteen Maritime Rescue Coordination Centres are spread across the UK, together with a small centre in London.
Each centre's systems are 'paired' with a neighbour allowing them to work together when necessary, but beyond these pairings the stations are not interoperable.
This means that the system suffers from a fundamental lack of resilience. In the event of a problem affecting both centres in a pair, it is not possible for an incident to be managed from another centre..... impossible to spread workloads across the system; so staff in one centre may be struggling to cope with call volumes while workloads in another may be low.... uneven workloads lessen resilience [good word that... used it twice], hamper staff development and lead to higher than necessary staff costs.
Aside from the head scratching moment of why whinge about no two centres being able to consistently work together and then reduce the sum total of the centres to two.... at which no doubt the staff will be much reduced ... and therefore be easily overcome by a lack of staff in moments of crises ...just one of the supposed faults at present..... I guess that the plan is to digitize it all so they can all speak to each other [or not] at a terrific price to install it and then to run it at a terrific cost .... [that goes with the story that 'some police officers directed to resort to text messages to call in to HQ']
I reckon that this is the first few days of another funding disaster.... 'lets save money' developing into cost overruns based on the cost of the proposed changes [the IT, comms, redundancy etc].
That line of thinking may just have a parrallel with the NPAS [we are supposed to be talking about!] in that no one has yet put forward the potential cost of plumbing in the BTP national network into the NPAS radio system. As each force developed the system locally there may be differences [despite the nominally central development] and what princely sum are Airwave central going to charge for the changes - no matter how minute? I bet its closer to a million than a thousand....
Last edited by PANews; 22nd Dec 2010 at 17:27. Reason: not finished....
And now for something different... and more on track.
The Bridport News in Dorset has just carried a long report on the local authority cuts to services and buried in there is a police helicopter cuts comment.
Dorset is now one of the lowest funded police forces in the country – and this calls for drastic measures, says the county’s chief constable. To deal with a shortfall of £6.7million next year the authority has announced dramatic cost-cutting measures to transform the force. The immediate measures to be put in place on January 4 include losing high-ranking police officers, continuing a recruitment freeze, changing shift patterns, scrapping geographical police divisions and possibly closing stations. In addition they will be flying less hours on the helicopter.
Little need to point out to the knowing that less hours means higher costs per hour but it is more pertinent to be asking some silly questions about what this means to the NPAS promise? Was it not just weeks ago that the ACPO Lead on Aviation and Chief Constable of Hampshire sacrificed 'his' fixed wing operation on the NPAS altar saying that the county would be covered by the helicopters of adjoining forces?
And is not Dorset one of those?
The Bridport News in Dorset has just carried a long report on the local authority cuts to services and buried in there is a police helicopter cuts comment.
Dorset is now one of the lowest funded police forces in the country – and this calls for drastic measures, says the county’s chief constable. To deal with a shortfall of £6.7million next year the authority has announced dramatic cost-cutting measures to transform the force. The immediate measures to be put in place on January 4 include losing high-ranking police officers, continuing a recruitment freeze, changing shift patterns, scrapping geographical police divisions and possibly closing stations. In addition they will be flying less hours on the helicopter.
Little need to point out to the knowing that less hours means higher costs per hour but it is more pertinent to be asking some silly questions about what this means to the NPAS promise? Was it not just weeks ago that the ACPO Lead on Aviation and Chief Constable of Hampshire sacrificed 'his' fixed wing operation on the NPAS altar saying that the county would be covered by the helicopters of adjoining forces?
And is not Dorset one of those?
Lots of fears being put out by local police authorities at present to whip up public protests ,which will at least give them some overtime when they have to kettle the protesters ...we're all doooomed I tell ye.
Is it a coincidence though that the government has just abandoned the regional fire centres ,after the previous government spent millions .Maybe they will be just the ticket for new regional coast guard centres ??
Is it a coincidence though that the government has just abandoned the regional fire centres ,after the previous government spent millions .Maybe they will be just the ticket for new regional coast guard centres ??
Purveyor of Egg Liqueur to Lucifer
Ok, seeing as no-one could answer the 'armchair quarterback' question, here is another
Has anyone ever actually acheived the same, or more, with less?
Has anyone ever actually acheived the same, or more, with less?
As for the second question, Yes!
That is before 'The Plan' was let loose.
Before the announcement, the Midlands from Cov to the Welsh Border and Stoke to Ross on Wye, had a virtual 24 hour service. Now that 'The Plan' has been announced, it has all gone back to square 1 !
So...we did achieve more, with less.
The Old Bill at Ludlow and Ross simply don't know what hits them when the helicopter turns up at 4/5am on a Misper search! Recent weeks can also back up this 'more with less' arrangement!
As I said earlier;
"Units around the country have already been striving to get more borderless/nearest ac type agreements set up. All that this NPAS descision has done is halt any progress, and thrown the proverbial bull into the china shop."
