We publish our 2024/25 annual performance report
Monday 7 July 2025
In 2024/25, we saw demand for air support grow, with our helicopter and aeroplane crews being deployed over 20,000 times.
And almost 90% of taskings attended by a National Police Air Service crew during that time resulted in a positive outcome – that’s 1,376 missing or vulnerable people found, 4,224 suspects apprehended and 1,987 vehicles located.
The latest yearly performance information for police air support is published in the 2024/25 NPAS Annual Report.
In introducing the report, the Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police, John Robins QPM DL, welcomed the announcement made earlier this year that new helicopters were to be brought into the national fleet in the single most significant investment in police air support since the formation of NPAS in 2012.
And he thanked the Home Office, National Strategic Board members, Chief Constables, Police and Crime Commissioners, plus NPAS and BlueLight Commercial colleagues for securing such a major investment in NPAS.
“It demonstrates the importance and value that NPAS brings to modern policing and the critical role that our air crews and support teams have in saving lives, tackling criminality and keeping people and our communities safer,” he said.
That value was evidenced when air crews flew for 80 hours to support police forces up and down the country as they tackled violent disorder in towns and cities in July and August 2024.
Crews from nine NPAS bases were deployed round-the-clock to provide vital aerial support for officer safety, situational awareness and the evidence-gathering necessary for swift justice for offenders.
Speed to a scene is just one of the many benefits of deploying air support.
The average time to deploy an aircraft from receiving an initial call was just over minutes and in just over 12 minutes our crews are overhead in emergencies.
But it is the vast and often inaccessible environments that our crews can quickly search that make the resource invaluable.
In December 2024, an NPAS crew flew through a fierce storm to find an elderly woman missing in remote hills above Huddersfield.
Without the perseverance of the crew, the woman would, most likely, not have survived the night in such dangerous conditions.
NPAS crews were tasked to look for more than 4,700 missing or vulnerable people in 2024/25.
View the report in flip format.
NPAS Accountable Manager Chief Supt Vicki White said: “There is little doubt that air support has a vital role in saving lives and safeguarding our communities.
“We know that our success depends on the collaboration of all our stakeholders, including our dedicated staff, police forces and partner agencies.
“Working together we can ensure NPAS remains a vital asset in safeguarding our society now, and in the future.”
