Just saw this story on the
BBC» 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-11627331I thought
BTP▸ only had one helicopter, so it seems a strange way of managing this new force?
