Crimewatch Summer roadshow @ Kenfig Nature Reserve
19/07/2011
Since my last blog post the unit has continued to be very busy both in ground and air tasks. The Spring Observer Training Course went well and all three candidates have now completed their local procedure training and have qualified as fully competent crew members.
The unit featured in a Police Review Magazine feature whilst hosting the course emphasising the work that the South West Region does to reduce costs and improve standards by carrying out joint training. The unit is due to be the venue for a further course in October and preparations are now underway to facilitate this.
The unit has in this period provided presentations to the Cardiff Model Engineering Society, and the Caerleon Rotary Club. It has also attended two events at the St Athan base in support of army and air cadet units based here.
Our Twitter support continue to grow and we now stand at 2 677 followers. We were for a time the most followed unit in the U.K. and featured in a number of media articles. We have been recently overtaken by the South East ASU although we are not too disappointed as they cover a larger area than us and have two helicopters (one of which is a joint Air Ambulance) so being only about 140 followers behind is not a bad result. If anybody wants to monitor our tweets though we never say no – go to the Twitter site and search for HELICOPS. Thank you for all the positive messages of support we have received on the site and to those we have woken in the night we are sorry. As you can see though we only are tasked if the incident is of a serious nature and we are likely to have an influence on it being successfully resolved.
Perhaps the highest profile event for the unit of late was when we featured at the end of June on the BBC’s Crimewatch Roadshow. The programme coincided with a community event we were participating in with the local Neighbourhood Policing Team and schools at Kenfig Burrows Nature Reserve. The event was to highlight the great work being carried out by the Reserve Wardens, Police and schools in reducing crime and increasing public safety at the location. It was fantastic to be able to help present this on a National stage although timing a ‘live’ aircraft landing was challenging. I have included some photographs of the event below.
The unit has continued to perform well since the last update. In the South Wales the aircraft has been tasked to 474 incidents. It has been involved in the arrest of 52 persons and has located £38 000 of property. It has also located 20 Missing People in this period.
11/04/2011
It is a while since I posted the last update on your Air Support unit. During the winter and early spring time officers have continued to carry out research work for the National Police Air Support Project Team. Officers from the unit have attended Western Counties Air Support Unit to deliver Crew Resource Management Courses to the staff there as well as planning the next Regional Basic Observer Course which is currently taking place. This sees the unit training one officer from Gwent and two from Thames Valley Police with the aid of instructors from the South West Air Support Region.
During this period a new Assistant Chief Constable and Chief Superintendent from
South Wales have taken up posts overseeing the helicopter and we have been pleased to host them at the unit when they attended to see the work we carry out at first hand.
In March we forwarded deployed to
Margam
Park at the same time the Welsh Air Ambulance Service were attending an event to celebrate their 10th Anniversary. This was the first time all three aircraft have been pictured together; a copy of which is below. I have also posted a photograph of our aircraft taken during the snow period we experienced before Christmas.
Our Twitter following has continued to grow and now we are approaching 2 000 followers. Unfortunately we cannot reply directly to every question posted on Twitter but I will try to answer some of the questions posed on this blog. A number of people have asked why sometimes when they see us a post of what we were doing sometimes does not follow. This could be for a number of reasons; if we are transiting to a task or are cancelled prior getting to a scene then we do not post the incident on Twitter. Also the crew may carry out general patrols on returning from tasks and generally we do not post these. As stated we are currently running the Basic Air Observers Course so sometimes you will see the aircraft over your house up to three times in a few hours as we have to run the same assessed flight for each student. We apologise if this causes annoyance – we generally try to fly higher than normal to minimise the noise on the ground. Thank you for all your messages of support – they are most welcome.
Other questions asked have been what is the difference between 999 and 112? The answer is nothing apart from 999 is the universally recognised UK Emergency number and 112 is the European recognised emergency number.
Sometimes we put the line “false call good intent”. We mean by this that the person calling the police was acting in good faith as opposed to malicious callers who aim to call emergency service resources, put others at risk and waste money by calling them out when not required.
As all Twitter users know there is only a limited amount of characters available to update incidents. If further information is required regarding incidents we would encourage people to contact the Corporate Communications Department of South Wales Police.
Since the last update in the
South Wales area the unit has attended 214 incidents. It has been involved in the arrest of 35 offenders and has found 15 Missing Persons. It has also been involved in the recovery of £64 000 worth of property.
24/03/10
Hello and welcome to the South and East Wales Police Air Support Unit Heliblog. I am Gary Smart, the Inspector in charge of the unit. On this blog we will keep you updated as to what the unit has been doing from day to day and let you know about other tasks that we carry out when we are not flying.
This week has seen the launch of our ‘Twitter’ page. The aim of the page is to let you know what we have been doing when perhaps you have seen us flying or hovering over your house. Our name on 'Twitter' is Helicops if you wish to follow us. To protect your communities and to assist us I would ask that if you do see anything suspicious whilst we are there or perhaps remember something later which might aid with the police investigation of the incident; that you please call in via 999 if urgent or 101 if non urgent and report it.
On our ‘Twitter’ page you will see that many have flights have been carried out over the last two weeks for the ‘Regional Air Observers Course’. Every year we host an Air Observer training course around this time in our role as one of the two designated South West Training Centres. Four new recruits are trained over a two week period in the core skills they will need in order to fulfil their ambition of becoming qualified Police Air Observers. They are trained in subjects such as Aircraft Safety, Air Navigation, Searching and Pursuit Management and must successfully pass the course to move on to the next stage of their development which is to learn how to operate the systems on the aircraft of the unit they will be serving on. On the current course we are training two officers from Devon and Cornwall Police along with one officer from Gwent and another from
South Wales. The aircraft remains operational during these training flights as two instructors are always carried and if a task comes in whilst airborne the instructors will divert and manage that incident leaving the student to watch at first hand what will be expected of them in only a few weeks time. Tomorrow is the students’ final test flights so hopefully all the hard work they have put in will pay off for them all.
01/10/2010
As the summer draws to a close we have time to look back and reflect on what a busy summer period it has been for the aircraft and the staff here at St Athan. During August visits were carried out to the East Midlands Air Operations Unit to see the benefits of working with Night Vision Goggles. Our unit is now due to start training to use this equipment and from what we saw the benefits of it both in terms of safety and increasing operational efficiency are massive.
We are now starting to work more closely with our colleagues in the British Transport Police who via Railtrack have funded operations using the aircraft to combat thefts that occur on or nearby railway lines. The disruption and cost of thefts to the railway infrastructure are great and have over the years affected many members of the public.
The unit has featured in the Echo recently when an article was written in relation to the dangers caused by people pointing laser pens at aircraft. At the time the photographer took a picture of the inside of the aircraft; a perspective the public generally do not see. Interest in following what we do on Twitter continues to grow and recently we obtained our 1 000th follower. We now have people following us from as far away as the
United States and
Brazil although the majority of our followers are local.
Unit training continued during the summer and as part of our recurring operational line checks last month members of the unit carried out their Underwater Escape and Sea Survival Training. It is quite challenging being strapped in a seat, inside a metal box which is then put underwater and turned upside down so you have experience of trying to get out. However, given the coastal area that the unit covers it is good that we are provided with this training as one day it may save somebody’s life. Everybody sent
passed the test.
We are currently working with the Police National Air Strategy Team to make the service that is delivered by air units more cost effective. In these challenging financial times the opportunity to realise cost savings is paramount and the unit will always strive to do this whilst still maintaining a high level of service.
Since the last blog entry the unit in the South Wales Police area alone has been involved in the arrest of 27 offenders; has found 18 missing persons and has recovered approximately £50 000 worth of property. The unit has dealt with 367 calls in this period.
In the last month we have seen the retirement of our longest serving officer.
Roy started on the unit when it first went operational in 1995 and served for a total of 33 years in the police force. He became a training officer and his knowledge in terms of Air Operations was respected on a national level. He will be missed by all those on our team although no doubt we will see more of him.
20/12/2010
As Christmas approaches and the snow starts to fall the unit has continued in its role of providing Air Support across the
South Wales area. Although sometimes it can be difficult to get staff into work during highly inclement weather the effort that officers, pilots and engineers put in to getting to work never ceases to amaze. Some have walked as many as three miles through the snow to ensure that the aircraft is available to fly. Thanks to their determination the aircraft has only been offline for one small period during the period owing to staff not being able to attend the unit.
Unit training has continued during the autumn with staff members attending mandatory courses in Crew Resource Management and Fire Fighting Training. Although most people can guess what fire fighter training is Crew Resource Management is probably known by fewer? In summary the training examines how a crews work together and aims to make them co-operate better in order to reduce the risk of accidents and improve efficiency whilst carrying out tasks. The unit has now two training officers trained as Instructors in this field and they are both looking forward to delivering their first course in the New Year.
Another selection process has recently been run at the unit and the successful candidate will go forward to the next stage of the entry to the Basic Observer Course in the spring of 2011.
The selection procedure used is extensive and includes stages such as physical fitness tests, swimming tests and leadership exercises. Candidates have to show their ability in areas such as Navigation and working as part of a team and only a few applicants, after the three days of the process, achieve the chance of completing the final exercise which are tests carried out on a flight in the aircraft itself.
The unit has recently taken part in the filming of a programme to be shown on television in the New Year featuring officers from other countries visiting police forces in the
United Kingdom. The aircraft hosted an officer whilst assisting in an ANPR exercise in the Gwent area and initial feedback from the Australian officer was that he enjoyed the experience of working with us although in many ways it was different to his role at home.
Since the last blog entry the unit has attended 250 calls in the
South Wales area. It has been involved in the arrest of 18 persons and has found 9 missing people. It has recovered property to the value of £60 000.
The Air Support Unit would like to wish all of our followers a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year and we look forward to con
tinuing to update you with what the unit is doing in 2011