Changes for police helicopter following chopper cuts

The new National Police Air Service (NPAS) launched on Monday means police air support is now co-ordinated nationally to save £15 million a year.
Thames Valley previously had two helicopters swooping over its skies but now that has been reduced to one under the new scheme, with choppers based at 23 locations, and 25 aircraft providing cover for England and Wales.
The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) who is leading the project, said the new set-up would provide an air service to “98 per cent of the population within 20 minutes.”
It's been reported that under the new scheme, the total number of helicopters will drop from 33.
The new service is expected to be complete in January 2015.
West Yorkshire Police to be the Lead Force for the air service and that this would ensure the service was led and owned by the police.
There will also be a helicopter based at RAF Benson in Oxfordshire, and from next July a helicopter will be based as Bournemouth Airport.
ACPO chief constable Alex Marshall said: "Artificial boundaries have meant that helicopters are restricted to operating within their own force area or consortia.
“A truly national, borderless service will ensure effective coverage of urban and rural areas. NPAS will provide the deployment of the nearest available aircraft and have reserve aircraft available when aircraft are offline for maintenance.
“Plans for this improved service have been in the pipeline for three years and I’m delighted that today will mark the first phase of implementation of an improved service for the public of England and Wales that will result in significant financial savings.”
The Thames Valley Police Federation said its officers had concerns over availability.
A statement read: “The reduced number of aircraft in our region, regardless of borderless areas, the further the aircraft has to fly the less effective it can be and the less time it can remain at the site of an incident.”
It said it supported any collaboration that reduced costs in times of austerity, however.
“On 'big ticket' items such as helicopters and fixed winged planes there are clear advantages to National procurement and maintenance contracts, combining these with the rationalisation of command and control structures will save huge amounts on budgets and undoubtedly will increase efficiency,” the statement added.