Pursuit. What's a pursuit? Oh yes, I vaguely remember one of those back in the old days. :(

Gem, stick around, they're due to make a comeback.

Well one could argue that a chief constable, whether they are/were ACPO lead on air support or not, may or may not be the right person to set up a national air support organisation..
One wonders what involvement/knowledge a busy Chief Constable could actually gain in the day to day workings of a busy ASU. I wonder how many hours he's flown as a pax..?
But thats probably a discussion for another thread..

Is there any truth to the rumours that there are are ASUs in the country that cannot self deploy..? Where is the lowest annual hour unit in the country.?

But the main question I suppose, in places like NWAOG, is.. is the prisoner count down, and is the number of pursuits arrived at down..?

Wrong about Liverpool pursuits! They will soon be known as "just let them go's"

Bob Ruprecht set up Hampshire ASU on a Cessna single in 1979 and it migrated to the Optica by 1985. That type let them down in a fatal accident over Ringwood and they shut down for a year or so as a result.
The Optica came back but the engineering again let it down when the fan failed.

You can blame the unit for being a bit gullible on the Optica but it did what it was designed to do...... provide VFR daylight observation on limited funds. It was a bit of a flyingclub throughout [but the Met and others were guilty of that into the 1990s] but it was a money thing.

When it came to the cuts Hampshire was an easy target, low key, low funding and an aircraft that represented poor value for money [low availability, regular problems with the engines, long maintenance periods] it was an easy 'Grand Gesture' for Alex Marshall to make that saved very little real cash. Add to that the retirement of Bob Ruprecht and all the right boxes were ticked.

It may be said that a similar process is forming over whether the Surrey or Sussex helicopter is to go.

Morris,

You have as much chance of getting those prisoner figures, as I do of autorotating onto Tranquility Base. :} They used to be displayed on the walls of most Unit bases, but I bet most are no longer posted where there have been changes.

My candidate for lowest hours flown would be Dyfed-Powys, but those Units competing for that prize will be shy to publicise their figures, I suspect.

PANews,

I had wondered which way that "contest" would go. There will be a host of pressures being applied to the decision, perhaps even some from the local air ambulance setup. Presumably the Sussex cab is a lot older than the Surrey one, but I don't know how the flying hours play. Pilots: Sussex D/E, Surrey contractors. If it is to be Redhill, then some of the Sussex pilots/observers may be reluctant to re-locate. [All speculation, I acknowledge, but this is a rumour network]

Helinut, Just to correct you Hampshire ASU has never operated out of Fairoaks, the ASU was based at Lee on Solent (Daedalus) for a number of years with the plank.

It was Surrey who were forced to move from Fairoaks to Odiham because of the continuing threat to the heli.

I would suggest that if you ask any of the Hampshire troops on the ground today they would welcome the Plank back.

Well, I've certainly been involved in far fewer prisoners since last July than in a similar period of time prior to that. And I'm not the only one. Less incidents attended = less prisoners.

Hi Gem, apart from not being as busy, you and the troops all doing OK?

Same old, same old Tom. We're still quite busy, just mainly duff jobs.

ahb,

I believe what I wrote was that Surrey AOU and its helicopter was at Fairoaks (in Surrey), before it moved to Odiham (in Hampshire). That is certainly what I meant, and is certainly what happened.

Looks like the "forced" collaboration order has just gone through a couple of days ago. (No turning back now as if they were ever going to)

The Police (Collaboration: Specified Function) Order 2012

And if anyone is interested in what was said when the committee debated it:

Draft Police (Collaboration: Specified Function) Order 2012

As Plymouth is about 20mins flying time from the most South West unit at Exeter, the whole of Cornwall is outside the 20min flying time.

Cornwall - 1,376 sq miles
England & Wales - 58,368 sq miles

There's 2.358% in one fell swoop! Add in the South East coast, West Wales, Herts & Beds, etc.... 'pants on fire' :p

Ah Silsoe. I think that will mean 97% of the population, not 97% of the geographical area, but you knew that anyway, didn't you?

NPAS Speak = "NPAS is already demonstrating some of the predicted cost savings !"

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d1...conuttySad.jpg

NPAS Message translated into English

Successfully apprehending, prosecuting and sentencing criminals is expensive. We can do less of it and thereby save money, which is obviously a good thing! :rolleyes:

NPAS spin.
 

Nick Herbert. (policing minister)
"As has been suggested, the authority’s concern was that response times to incidents in much of south Yorkshire would have been longer under the original NPAS proposals. Set against that, however, the hours available for air support coverage would have increased and the NPAS would have provided cover for periods when aircraft were undergoing maintenance. The local solution is preferred by the force and it is a good route forward. "

I recall the police authority chairman saying "we've a gun to our head so we have no choice".!

The Yorkshire ASU mutual aid set up ALREADY provides cover 24/7 for all 3 members AND cover during maintenance.

SYP have gained nothing by joining NPAS except an extra £6000per year to pay, over and above their existing budget, for the privilege of losing half their operating hours and half their staff...

Spin spin and more spin.
It was their choice. They could have saved the extra money which I think was a little more than 6k.

That may be the thought, but he didn't say that did he!
Smoke and mirrors, smoke & mirrors :suspect:



England pop 2001 census 49,138,831
Wales pop 2001 census 2,903,085
Total UK population covered by NPAS = 52,041,916

97% = 50,480,658

So the equivalent of roughly the whole population of Wales, not being covered by air support is, in the Ministers eyes alright then :rolleyes:

Like most single targets generated by politicians concerning service targets it is essentially meaningless.

Its the same as the 8 minute target for 999 ambulance arrivals or the 4 hr dwell time in A&E. It has no decent logical basis and once it exists it becomes the only goal. People will now be employed to make sure that the stats show it is fulfilled (not by manning aircraft but by fiddling with the stats before they are issued). It is the same thing with target crimes. Once they exist, detectives are formed into small admin teams who spend their days in an office massaging stats and crime reports so that burglaries (or whatever) magically become criminal damage.

Sorry for the rant. I feel better now.

But know one ever asks those who do the job what are sensible targets.