British Transport Police to run new helicopter service

[whole diary]

[Brucey]

Just saw this story on the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) News website and was a little shocked to read the bit I've highlighted

The police helicopters of England and Wales are to be merged into a single National Police Air Service.

A "shadow service" will begin next year and the full national service will roll out in 2012.

Currently there are 33 aircraft at 30 different bases. These all belong to individual forces.

The National Police Air Service will have 23 aircraft at 20 bases. This will save ^15m from the current total of ^66m.

The service, which will also have three spare choppers, will provide 24-hour cover with a 20-minute response time for 97% of the population of England and Wales.

In many forces there is only cover for about 18 hours at present.

British Transport Police will be in charge of the service's command and control structure

It is not clear if police forces in Scotland and Northern Ireland plan to follow suit.

Police helicopters are regularly used by forces chasing suspects on foot and in vehicles and can also be a vital tool in the search for missing people.

But there have been fears expressed that the new service will be poorer.

In August the chairman of the Hampshire branch of the Police Federation, John Apter, warned about plans to merge the force's helicopters with those of Sussex and Surrey.

He said: "I'm confident the service won't be badly affected, but we have to accept that in reducing from three to two aircraft, there has got to be a level of service that is diminished. The service I hope we will obtain will be adequate but it's clearly not the Rolls-Royce service we've been used to."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11627331

I thought BTP^▸ (British Transport Police) only had one helicopter, so it seems a strange way of managing this new force?

[JayMac]

Well, BTP^▸ (British Transport Police) is a nationwide force, so it kinda makes sense for them to run the command and control structure, rather than the Home Office having to set up a whole new one.

[SDS]

Great, BTP^▸ (British Transport Police) using more of its limited resources to help civi police. Hope BTP gonna get a kickback which they will invest into being more visible.
Nah didn't think so.

[Electric train]

Great, BTP^▸ (British Transport Police) using more of its limited resources to help civi police. Hope BTP gonna get a kickback which they will invest into being more visible.
Nah didn't think so.

I would think that the Police observers would be transfered to BTP or seconded along with some of the managerial teams, personally I think this is good news for BTP