You'd like to think that a quick power check was done beforehand in order to ensure endurance and to confirm that there was enough oomph to get in and out of any tight places.

The problem isn't at the coal face, must be elsewhere?

I do think though that NPAS which is the provider for Police Services to the public via helicopters should be accountable for their officers, C/Supt Whitehouse is a dubious person to hold a position of seniority due to the following: Lack of Morale fibre.

So which ever way you look at it he lacks Moral Fibre as he was not honest to his wife at least! He did not do the right thing by giving into temptation.... Once the door is open then one thing can lead to another, so in my view he has shown discreditable conduct and should not hold office.....

This is heading toward becoming a JetBlast thread.

Is that what you want?

I think it's quite relevant to whats going on, all this is in the press and there are questions that really need answering, but that's just my opinion.

I think most off us would just like Air Support back and done the way it should be done, headed by professionals with an interest in Policing from above.

I suspect that will never happen. In fact it may get a whole lot worse.

I think the earlier posts are bringing up the question of integrity.
In days gone by, I remember that anything someone did that may lead them to being vulnerable to coercion was frowned & actioned upon at the highest levels.

The sauna incident is in the open and known about by all concerned, however what else may be in a cupboard somewhere? If the last paragraph of one of the linked stories is anything to go by, surely some serious questions need asking about what is going on within NPAS.

Anyone know what the C/Supt is directly responsible for, and what contracts or appointments he may have been involved with as far as NPAS is concerned?

Oh, on a different note, can anyone confirm the total number of people that work in the Despatch and Flight Monitoring Office?

Sid,

The proposal was 6 supervisors and 30 operators to cover all regions, most, if not all, visited a unit in the SE region for famil and a well known contributor on here and a couple of other TFOs went there for a few nights to 'induct' them. There was talk of some cross-desking to keep staff numbers down, but not sure if that happens. Total cost of staff there at projected around £800,000 pa when on-costs are included.

C'est tous un tas de merde.

This is a business that's meant to be making significant savings, but seems unable to concentrate on the job in hand. Police helicopters have always attracted high-profile attention from the media and general public, with children & adults alike getting excited whenever they get the chance to see one close-up. Whilst the introduction of a new machine has previously been akin to a Chief Constable saying "look, I've got a newer/smarter/bigger appendage in my arsenal", that excitement may have translated across to others (newer to the game) more literally!

I'd love to see the accounts, but would find it quite difficult to believe any claims of financial, operational or manpower efficiencies.

Repeat first sentence.

36 people! That's equivalent to the full manning (personning) of 2 air units, or twice as many to man (person) one, isn't it?

£800k, isn't that more than the savings made that forced the closure of the Cambridge ASU, that resulted in that huge gap, that resulted in a 135 having to go into Lippitts Hill?
Cambridge News

Makes you wonder how air support managed to cope with dispatch and flight monitoring before

The theory at the time was, 1 supervisor per shift, 1 dispatcher per region plus someone to spell for VDU/meal breaks, 3 shifts on, 2 shifts on days off, leave, training, sickness etc..

I see Suffolk have just decided to amalgamate their control room with Norfolk at Wymondham in Norfolk to save cash, so there's no going back now....

A supervisor, supervising 5 regional dispatchers and 1 filler in; 7 persons per shift.
I wonder how that dispatcher to asset ratio compares to urban force control rooms and control rooms such as CMPG. Isn't that like, even at the busiest time if the day/ night, a single CMPG dispatcher just having to look after 4 cars, or a force control room 4 officers?

I'd have thought that they should ALL be able to spell ?

Nail

I wander what would happen if the units responded to calls on a common area talk group without the need to go through a dispatch?

... There would be a lot of people being told how thin the ice they were stood on is and that it was melting so fast they needn't worry about getting their shoes wet, as that ice is in an early sublimation phase.

The control room does a good job at flight following, but little else. Jobs coming through with little or no detail, not even simple stuff like a talkgroup or postcode.

Each Police radio/control room just needs to know there nearest aircraft, and call them direct. If they are already on a job, they can refer them to the next aorcraft. Simples.

Yes one would like to think so!
I'd hate to think that if an aircraft was to go down, either intentionally or not, that they didn't know where it was

Yes, I suppose I should have added "as long as it's not too complicated. Anyone know if a crashex has been done yet.

We had to do 3 at Merseyside before they got it right. First one we resorted to pressing the the Airwaves emergency button after nobody had noticed that we hadn't called on the ground after 15 mins.

The second time, a patrol turned up at Woodvale, got into the office, but wouldn't come out onto the dark airfield, where we were sat shutdown, because it was an airfield and there might be aircraft about.

Oh well, its early days

There's a nice piece in last Decembers PAN …. how many was there supposed to be per shift? 1 supervisor, 5 regional dispatchers and a spare?

http://www.policeaviationnews.com/Ac...cember2013.pdf