Our 2024/25 performance dashboard: Taskings

84.5% of all air support tasks in 2024/25 involved searching for a suspect, vehicle or vulnerable person.

There were 743 pre-planned tasks supported by NPAS. Most of these involved requests for imagery.

Our onboard cameras are able to produce high quality images which meet evidential standards for court cases.

NPAS has an important role to play in the management of large public events, as well as planned operations in support of policing priorities. Our crews also have a role to play neighbourhood action initiatives, such as targeting nuisance motorbikes or rural crime.

Declined calls for service

There will always be times when, unavoidably, we have to decline a call for our assistance.

The main reasons are unsafe weather conditions for flying, engineering requirements for the aircraft, crew abstractions for training or a pilot's flight time limitations.

On occasions a request simply isn't viable for air support.

Our experienced officers provide tactical advice to Force Incident Managers and Control Room staff, advising them
of the capabilities of air support in any particular scenario, taking into consideration timings, the environment, the capabilities of the aircraft and weather limitations.

In 2024/25, we declined 21.1% of calls for service.