Recommendations - Norfolk and Suffolk Constabularies, October 2024

The IOPC recommends that Norfolk and Suffolk Constabularies review and update, where relevant, their force guidance and training on the role of the National Police Air Service (NPAS) during pursuits to ensure it is aligned with national guidance. The training and guidance should clarify the level of commentary expected from NPAS in cases where they have been deployed and the police control room has asked them to take over radio commentary. The training should also clarify the level of commentary required from police units on the ground in cases where NPAS have been asked to take over commentary. Consideration should be given to the observational limitations from the NPAS aircraft and the responsibility of officers on the ground to report on their dynamic risk assessments where possible.

This follows a police pursuit where NPAS were deployed, and control room staff asked them to take over commentary. The NPAS updates did not relay key moments of the pursuit over the radio which meant that the control room did not have all the relevant information to inform their risk assessments. It seems this was in part due to NPAS not observing all the activities on the ground and due to radio signal issues. The officers said they did not provide updates to the radio channel because they understood that NPAS had primacy and/or due to signal issues on the ground. The NPAS staff said there is no guidance on the level of commentary expected of them during a pursuit. Similarly, some of the officers commented that they had not had training on NPAS and the commentary they can provide during a pursuit. 

Accepted

The Norfolk and Suffolk Pursuits training has been reviewed by the Chief Driving Instructor Mr Pooley and Deputy Chief Driving Instructor Mr McKay. Mr Pooley and Mr McKay sit under the learning and development command and cover both Norfolk and Suffolk Constabularies. 

ACC Dean has oversight of the Driver Training Unit (DTU) and maintains a position of joint force responsible officer. ACC Dean meets regularly with Mr Pooley and Mr McKay to assess the organistional position and ensure accreditation for driver training.

It has been highlighted that Police Driver Training now sits within a National Licencing Framework mandated by the College of Policing and legislation. 

This essentially ensures that each police driving skillset taught is to the same standard, has the same content and same governance.  

Consequently, individual forces are unable to change or amend the existing training packages at a local level and this must be driven from the national leads. 

The learning and assessment standard are clearly defined in the Authorised Professional Practice (APP), the National Policing Curriculum (NPC), Programme Specification, Assessment Requirements and the Tactical Pursuit and Containment Tactics Directory.  

It has been confirmed that Norfolk and Suffolk Police DTUs conduct their training to the standards and requirements and are aligned with all the National Training Packages currently in place.
Norfolk and Suffolk do discuss holistically how NPAS can assist in reducing the pressure of both police and subject car drivers engaged in a pursuit and their limitations, but not to the detail as outlined in the recommendations.  

In addition, there is a grey area in that flight operators may not be tactically trained so technically cannot direct tactical resolutions as this sits with the ground pursuit commander, potentially adding further confusion. 

I (DI Tate) have discussed the roles, responsibilities, capabilities and expectations of the NPAS air crew within any pursuit with the NPAS Air Service Operations Chief Inspector, the Regional Operations Manager – South. 

It is highlighted that the defined role of NPAS within the APP is limited. It is however acknowledged and set as an operational parameter that NPAS is not a pursuit asset, this as they are not ground assigned. They are in essence that additional oversight and deployable resource to allow, if required, all ‘blue light assets’ to be withdrawn until the risk is reduced/removed. 

The crew of NPAS are assigned roles, Pilot, TFO and Rear Seat. The TFO and Rear Seat are trained within pursuits in terms of commentary to a set standard. 

The NPAS crew will not undertake the role of Pursuit Commander, this will be for the ground assigned assets based on risk. They will however (as detailed above) be able to upon request provide a commentary. This will be limited to, for example, locations/manner of driving/geographical features – they will not direct the implementation of any tactical options. This has been discussed and confirmed as accurate between the NPAS Regional Operations Manager and the CoP APP author. 

NPAS have a training product given to aircrews. There has been an offer for the east area base manager to link in with the Norfolk and Suffolk DTU (which has been passed to Mr Pooley/Mr McKay). They will be able to discuss the product they use, review with DTU if there are any additional pieces of information that can be used within the overall training (the APP cannot be amended locally), and if appropriate/available, Mr Flynn will attend the training session(s) to observe and or provide an input.
In addition, NPAS are developing some training awareness/material to be provided to Force Incident Managers (Control room) via the CoP programme. The intention is to try and have a standing slot within that training programme.

To highlight this learning nationally, and where possible for considerations on any identified amendments to policy, links have been established between

1. CoP – Roads Policing Business Manager – DTU Mr McKay
2. National Working Group on Police Pursuits chaired by ACC Barry – DTU Mr McKay 

Confirmation has been received that the NPAS Base Manger has been in contact with Mr Pooley and the input by NPAS is being facilitated.

It has been confirmed that correspondence between Mr Pooley and ACC Barry has resulted in the awareness of the National Learning objectives as set, do not cover the NPAS aspect. This needs to be raised through the national forum (January 2025) Mr Pooley will be attending. There is normally NPAS representation at that meeting. This opportunity and forum could provide some direction for discussions and possible recommendations going forward.  
 

The IOPC recommends that Suffolk Constabulary ensure the 'downlink' function in the control room is working as expected to enable the transmission of data during a police pursuit. 

This follows a police pursuit which took place in a large field with very high crops. The National Police Air Service (NPAS), who were in attendance, provided commentary to the control room. However, due to the nature and location of the pursuit, the NPAS descriptions were not thorough and control room staff did not have a clear picture of what was happening on the ground. 

The NPAS aircrafts are fitted with Airborne Data Links (ADL) which enable aircraft staff to downlink aerial images to the control rooms. This technology can be used during pursuits. Visual imagery via the downlink function would have assisted the control room staff in understanding what was happening on the ground. 

Unfortunately, on the day of the incident, the downlink function had not been working and this was reportedly due to issues with its compatibility with Microsoft Edge.

Accepted

A meeting has taken place with Mr Stratford – Infrastructure Engineering Manager. Mr Stratford has extensive knowledge of the systems and the maintenance programme.

The organisations were part of the national tech refresh of downlink. Norfolk has a number of sites across Norfolk and Suffolk where downlink receivers /aerials are located. The system has the benefit if a downlink site fails, the signal automatically transfers to one of the remaining sites. 

The signal from the helicopter is transmitted and is in essence separated into different functions - all combined to produce the footage.

The downlink receiver in Suffolk has different range antenna providing geographical cover. This is replicated across Norfolk. The sites will automatically connect to the nearest mast to the helicopter downlink. If a downlink site fails in Norfolk, the other sites provide full coverage so will seamlessly take over. It was stated that there was a period of time where IT were unaware of the differing systems set up in Suffolk, and when testing was carried out it was always limited to one geographical capacity, so unaware of the other geographical capacity issues. 

Testing the system takes place on a regular basis. There was however a restriction to that testing. IT don’t have a specific transmitter to test with, and are only able to replicate the video feed from the helicopter in test and not the full download process. It was not practical to deploy NPAS on testing days to check. 

In mid-2024, Mr Stratford arranged for the system manufacturer to test the system with their own technology. This replicates the download from the helicopter. It was established that there was an issue – this has now been rectified and processes in place. In addition, there was a further fault identified, operational capacity was maintained. 

Testing is now undertaken on each of the aerials. There is a process of disconnecting one of the receivers to ensure that both are working.

Human input is required within the CCRs to receive the downlink. This requires the channels to be set to the same (NPAS/CCR). The system is not however a stand-a-lone NPAS only system. As a result, at times the channels is changed – a visual prompt is displayed that the monitor is working, this being coloured bars on the screen.  When the downlink is sent, the picture will show – all those pursuit trained will have that understanding and the knowledge on how to change the channel if required.

CCRs have a direct link into IT to ensure that any issues that are experienced are reported and rectified as soon as possible to prevent operational loss/restrictions when footage is sent from NPAS. This to include, if necessary, out of hours/on call. The close working relationship between CCR/IT has been maintained to ensure that any system issues can be raised and where possible rectified without delay.