The Chiltern Air Support Unit (CASU) was a police

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...

unit that operated under a

consortium A consortium (plural: consortia) is an association of two or more individuals, companies, organizations or governments (or any combination of these entities) with the objective of participating in a common activity or pooling their resources for ...

agreement between

Bedfordshire Police Bedfordshire Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing the ceremonial county of Bedfordshire in England, which includes the unitary authorities of Bedford, Central Bedfordshire and Luton. Its headquarters are in Kempston, B ...

Thames Valley Police Thames Valley Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing the Thames Valley, covering the counties of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire. It the largest non-metropolitan police force in England and Wales, covering a ...

and

Hertfordshire Police Hertfordshire Constabulary is the territorial police force responsible for policing the county of Hertfordshire in England. Its headquarters is in Welwyn Garden City. The current chief constable is Charlie Hall. As of March 2019, the force cons ...

until 1 October 2012, when it merged into the

National Police Air Service The National Police Air Service (NPAS) is a police aviation service that provides centralised air support to the 43 territorial police forces in England and Wales, as well as the three special police forces serving that area. It replaced the pr ...

History

Chiltern Air Support Unit Eurocopter EC135T2 CPDS

Prior to 1980, Thames Valley Police occasionally used

s at special events. For example, in 1963, Oxford City Police experimented using a Brantley helicopter with a dog basket attached to the skids. In 1980, an aircraft was used on twenty separate days at various events, with further use taking place during 1981. It was not until June 1982 that the first formally contracted flights took place. During the next four years the helicopter was used more frequently. A single engine Aerospatiale A350 Squirrel helicopter designated G-JORR was hired for day-time operations for each weekday of 1985. This aircraft was based at Oxford Airport and used exclusively by the Thames Valley Police. Seven sergeants were drawn from the Traffic and Operations Departments as part-time observers. During April 1986, the Thames Valley Police Air Support Unit, as it had become known, was relocated to RAF Abingdon. Providing daylight cover only, the Unit was allocated a budget of 650 flying hours, but was still crewed by sergeant observers on an ''ad hoc'' basis. It was recognised that the specialist skills required could no longer be met by part-time observers, and in 1988 the decision was taken to recruit and train dedicated observers. The unit was renamed to the Chiltern Air Support Unit in 1996. Chiltern Air Support's Luton helicopter (EC135T2 CPDS) moved from London Luton Airport to

RAF Henlow RAF Henlow is a Royal Air Force station in Bedfordshire, England, equidistant from Bedford, Luton and Stevenage. It houses the RAF Centre of Aviation Medicine, the Joint Arms Control Implementation Group (JACIG), elements of Defence Equipment an ...

, near

Hitchin Hitchin () is a market town and unparished area in the North Hertfordshire Districts of England, district in Hertfordshire, England, with an estimated population of 35,842. History Hitchin is first noted as the central place of the Hicce peopl ...

and Shillington. The helicopter was upgraded in 2001, and reached 10,000 hours of flying in September 2011. It operated using the call-sign XA99. Chiltern's other helicopter (EC135T1CDS) is based at

RAF Benson Royal Air Force Benson or RAF Benson is a Royal Air Force (RAF) station located at Benson, near Wallingford, in South Oxfordshire, England. It is a front-line station and home to the RAF's fleet of Westland Puma HC2 support helicopters, use ...

near Wallingford in

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primarily ...

. An order was made to replace the current helicopter due to changes in the law. It is now a requirement that the aircraft should have an Autopilot to make operations safer. In October 2010, the helicopter was exchanged with another Eurocopter EC135P2+ registered G-TVHB. It operated using the call-sign XA97.

National Police Air Service

On 1 October 2012, the Chiltern Air Support Unit was taken over by the newly created

. Only the Benson staff employed by the Chiltern Air Support Unit were seconded to

West Yorkshire Police West Yorkshire Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing the metropolitan county of West Yorkshire, England. It is the fourth largest territorial police force in England and Wales by number of officers. History West Yor ...

, who are the lead force for the NPAS. Aircraft and staff at the RAF Henlow site were disbanded and did not join NPAS, despite concerns being expressed by the Thames Valley Police Federation and a petition to UK Parliament being launched to protect the base.

References

{{UK home nations police forces, state=collapsed Police aviation units of the United Kingdom Defunct organisations based in the United Kingdom 2012 disestablishments in England

History

National Police Air Service

See also

References