Police Scotland to no longer call on Civil Air Patrol

The UK’s Sky Watch Civil Air Patrol (UKCAP) has expressed its dismay at Police Scotland’s recent decision to stop working with the organisation’s volunteer pilots. Police Scotland was formed on 1 April 2013 by the merger of Scotland’s eight regional police forces, the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency (SCDEA) and the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland (ACPOS).

Explaining the move, Assistant Chief Constable Bernard Higgins of Police Scotland said: “The [UKCAP] is a volunteer programme and not a 24-hours-a-day, 7-days-a-week national resource. Since the start of Police Scotland [on 1 April 2013], the [Police] 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 UKCAP.”

Responding to the announcement, the Highland and Lowland units of the Civil Air Patrol suggested that Police Scotland may have acted on an erroneous interpretation of the UK Air Navigation Order, which mandates that UK-registered aircraft ‘must not fly on any flight in the service of a police authority otherwise than under and in accordance with the terms of: a police air operator’s certificate (AOC) granted to the operator; a national air operator’s certificate granted to the operator; or an EU-OPS air operator certificate granted to the operator and in accordance with EU-OPS as though it were a commercial air transport flight’.

The charity stated that obtaining an AOC is not practical for the Civil Air Patrol. However, it added: “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 Police Scotland, neither do Police Scotland have any obligations towards the UKCAP. All flights are entirely private and under the sole control of the pilot … The UKCAP is not an emergency service and does not provide standby cover. All of this means that the UKCAP cannot be ‘tasked’ in any way and can only be ‘requested’, as with any member of the public, to indirectly assist, if practical.” The charity added: “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 requested to search their gardens or outbuildings and generally keep and eye out for a missing person. One must ask if the entire population acts in the service of a police authority in these circumstances.”

UKCAP expressed its hope that alternative means of activation will continue to occur, such as a request for assistance being made directly from the relatives of missing persons. UKCAP also noted that other police forces in the UK do not share Police Scotland’s view. The charity asserted that it is patiently engaging in a process to reverse the move by Police Scotland, saying that one single police helicopter ‘cannot possibly provide adequate cover’.