Life is never simple, eh?

Here in the UK, a commissioner is the top officer in the Met Police. The City of London Police is also run by a commissioner.

However, throughout the rest of the UK, there are police and crime commissioners, they are civilians (usually attached to a political party) that oversee county police forces. On just one occasion years ago, a London-based friend asked me why those commissioners are civilians rather than top cops. We don’t do anything easy over here.

I’m also told a senior Royal Navy officer runs a particular function at one of our RAF stations. Nothing is ever what logic might expect…

What is the function?

Only reason I could think of would be a shortage of officers at the necessary rank.

If it was an overlapping function, I could see one service providing a CO who commanded officers of the other.  For instance, a weather research and tracking unit; or, a tactical training command, like Fighter Weapons School (aka Top Gun).  I could see a naval aviator in charge of an Air Force Aggressor Squadron.  There, the emphasis is on dog fighting tactics, while facing pilots acting as aggressors, in simulation of potential enemy air wings and aircraft.  There is a lot of crosstraining between the services.  However, there is a difference in philosophy of their roles.  Because of circumstances, naval aviation operates in smaller size units and tend to be less doctrinal in thinking.  They are centered around 2 plane combat combinations, whereas the Air Force tends to center their tactics around bigger groupings and tends to be formalized in who is making the decisions in combat.  It's not a hard and fast thing, though and depends on the mission and the aircraft involved.

By the same token, in the Special Operations world, there is a lot of overlap between services and much crosstraining and joint command operations.  It kind of started in Vietnam, with the CIA-run Special Operations Group (or Studies and Operations Group, as it was rebranded), with personnel drawn from both the Green Berets and the Navy SEAL teams, though rarely in the same operation.  It happened, but not often.  Of course, for the US military, the most famous combined operation was the Doolittle Raid, where US Army Air Force B-25 bombers were flown off the USS Hornet, to carry out strikes on the home islands of Japan.  The USAAF pilots had never made carrier launches and usually lifted off from much longer runways.  They first had to conduct tests to see if it was even feasible.  A carrier could get them within striking range, but carrier based aircraft didn't have the range to get close enough to Japan, without greatly endangering the carrier, while the bombers had no bases within range of Japan.  That's why Doolittle got the mission, as he was a noted pilot and aeronautical expert.  The figured out how much distance they needed to take off and how high to rev the engines to achieve the right thrust and lift to get them airborne, in that distance, within the limitations of the flight deck of the Hornet.  It was a hell of a feet, even if it was more of a morale-boosting stunt than a strategic maneuver.  Same with the Makin Island Raid, by Carson's Raiders (who were Marines, trained to operate as a raiding force, based on the Mao model, in China).  It basically proved that unconventional tactics could put the enemy on the defensive and give the Allies some breathing room, while they built their forces and prepared counter-strikes and invasions.  Same thing with the SAS, in North Africa, as they struck out of the desert at the airfields and supply depots for the Afrika Korps, reducing their air support and adding to their logistics problems, while also forcing them to commit more of their troops to safeguarding rear areas and weakening their front lines.

You might have enjoyed more 70s police show fare, like Starsky & Hutch, Baretta, SWAT, The Rookies or Police Woman.  They all had interesting characters and a rich collection of them, in episodic stories.  SWAT had plenty of gun play and was considered the most violent show of its time, though at least they could actually hit the bad guys, when they shot at them (or vice versa).  the A-Team could have been standing inside a barn and fire their weapons on full auto and still never hit anything, including the walls or ceiling.  Not to mention I don't recall anyone ever reloading.  How do you get 1500 rounds out of a 30-round magazine?  Even cowboy films could count better than that!  They also had a van, before the A-Team (a delivery van type, which we called The UPS Truck, since it was the same type that UPS used for deliveries, in those days).  Robert Urich was about the only one of note in the series, as Steve Forrest had a deep voice, but was pretty one-note, as an actor.

Starsky & Hutch were an interesting pair of detectives, with their Gran Torino car tearing across the street, plus Antonio Vargas, as Huggy Bear and the guy who played their boss.  Baretta had all kinds of colorful characters, from his boss, to snitches, to the crooks, to his pet cockatoo, Fred.  Plus, he had an iconic theme song, from Sammy Davis Jr.  The Rookies was more serious, but well written and acted adn SWAT was spun off from it, though it didn't last as long.

Police Woman had Angie Dickinson, who was way sexier than Charlie's Angels (she came across less innocent) and the rest of the team was pretty good, especially Earl Holliman, as her boss.

A really good one, from that era, was Police Story, which was an anthology series, about different police officers.  It was created by Joseph Wambaugh, an ex-cop and best selling novelist (New Centurions, The Onion Fields, The Blue Knight).  The series was noted for its grittier realism, compared to other cop shows out there and being less hero worshipping, than Jack Webb's shows (Dragnet, Adam-12, Emergency).

No experience with that; but, I suspect that it depends on whether it is a dedicated unit or a special pool of qualified officers.  For the latter, you might have a group of officers who are certified police divers, who are called in when needed, and perform regular duties outside those situations.  If it is a dedicated division, then you have equipment maintenance, physical training, dive training, requalification, course work and other things related to the job to keep you busy.  For a dedicated team, you would likely have a sustained, demonstrated need.  Probably cities around major bodies of water.  In other areas, the county or state police might provide divers wherever needed.