Police Scotland was today
condemned for its “baffling” decision to axe the use of civilian
volunteer pilots who have been providing the Sky Watch service in
missing people searches and other potentially life saving operations
across the country.
The volunteer pilots of the UK Civil Air
Patrol (UKCAP) - also known as Sky Watch - have been providing aerial
support to the emergency services since being originally formed in
Yorkshire in 2000.
Scotland has two operational units, the
Highland Civil Air Patrol with aircraft based at Inverness, Kirkwall,
Lossiemouth, Peterhead and Plockton, and the Lowland Unit which is
centred on Perth airfield but also has aircraft operating from Leuchars,
Fife, Kingsmuir and East Fortune airfields.
But the civilian
volunteers have now been told that their services are no longer required
by the new national police force in Scotland as the air support unit
previously operated by the Strathclyde force is now available
nationwide.
Bernard Higgins, the Assistant Chief Constable of
Police Scotland said: “The UK Civil Air Patrol ‘Skywatch’ is a volunteer
programme and not a 24 hours a day, 7 days a week national resource.
“Since
the start of Police Scotland, the Air Support Unit has become a
Scotland-wide resource with specially-trained officers using state of
the art equipment which is available to assist in a variety of
operations, including searching for missing people in remote areas
across Scotland in a co-ordinated and operationally managed way. Police
Scotland has considered all options available to them, and has come to
the unavoidable conclusion that it should cease using the volunteer UK
Civil Air Patrol.”
“Baffled”
A spokesman for the
Scottish arm of the UK Civil Air Patrol (UKAP) said in a statement that
the volunteers had been left completely baffled by the decision.
He
said: “Police Scotland has recently announced that it will no longer
request the assets of the UK Civil Air Patrol in any capacity. This, we
believe, is due in principal to an erroneous interpretation of the UK
Air navigation Order.” The Order regulates aviation within the UK and
governs the use of aircraft involved on any flight in the service of a
police authority.
The spokesman said: “The UKCAP has been well
aware of this legislation since its inception. It has always been at
pains to completely exclude itself from falling into any category that
could possibly be interpreted as being ‘in the service of a police
authority’. The UKCAP is not paid by Police Scotland, neither does the
UKCAP have any contract with Police Scotland, neither does the UKCAP
have any obligations of any kind towards PS, neither do PS have any
obligations towards the UKCAP. All flights are entirely private and
under the sole control of the pilot.”
He continued: “UKCAP exists
to primarily support the community and not the police. UKCAP is
therefore no more ’in the service of a police authority’ than are any
other independent members of the public who may be casually requested to
search their gardens or outbuildings and generally keep and eye out for
a missing person – a situation that is fairly common.”
And he
claimed: “It is the community that may suffer as a direct result this
baffling misinterpretation and we must all hope that alternative means
of activation will continue to occur, such as a request for UKCAP
assistance direct from the relatives of missing persons or as part of UK
Search and Rescue, to which the UKCAP remains declared. “
The
spokesman continued: “ It should also be noted that other police forces
do not share the Police Scotland (PS) view and neither did the separate
Scottish regional forces prior to the merger. UKCAP are patiently
engaging in a process to reverse this move by PS which is responsible
for an area in which every possible search asset is vital and over which
one single police helicopter cannot possibly provide adequate cover.
UKCAP would hope that the public will help by questioning this new
policy of exclusion and voice support for its reversal. “
Samaritans
Willie
Rennie, the leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, also condemned
the decision to axe the service provided the band of “Good Samaritans.”
He
said: “I know that my local police service worked closely with Sky
Watch before the creation of a single force and they had a number of
successes. The fact that policing is now being controlled from Edinburgh
does not change the fact that these volunteers have a genuine
contribution to make across Scotland. This is a valuable resource that
does not cost the taxpayer a penny.
“If there are compelling
operational reasons for this decision then we need to hear them. But on
the face of it, Police Scotland’s decision to cut links with these Good
Samaritans is difficult to comprehend.”
The civilian volunteers
of Sky Watch provide aircraft for air searches and eye in the sky cover
at major events. A spokesman said: “Missing persons, vehicles,
equipment, boats, livestock, downed aircraft have all been located from
the air by the UKCAP.
“Aircraft are particularly useful for
searching rivers and river banks, reed beds, moorland, scrubland,
railway lines, ravines, loch and field margins, open undulating spaces -
all of which are very time and manpower consuming to search from the
ground. As well as a great deal of effort and cost, huge amounts of time
can be saved. Time is nearly always a critical factor in the survival
of missing persons.”
Source: http://www.scotsman.com
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