Different police teams vary in size, some teams can have 2 members and some teams can over 20 plus members, formal teams can have a clear membership and defined structure, they have really good clear objectives and they have set goals as well as, these goals are reached in a timely fashion. Project teams come together for only a short space of time, they come together for only a short space of time to solve a particular problem and example of this may be the operational support teams. Permanent teams are particularly popular in public service teams; the different teams have the same members for a very long time, years even. They are known as a strong team who would know each other’s strengths and weaknesses, however on the downside they can become set in their ways and it can be difficult to change how a permanent team works. Temporary teams will only come together for a short period of time to solve a particular problem and then they disband when the objective has been completed. Examples of this type of temporary could be the operational tactical and strategic command teams at the scene of a major incident.
Different types of police roles:
Dog handler – Within the police force, dog handlers are very important when attending different crimes, for example drug searches, explosive searches or chasing criminals. The unit is split into two factions. All General Purpose Dogs are all trained to track for persons/offenders, search open areas and buildings, to search for and find recently discarded items of property and also to detain suspects. There are specialist search dogs trained to detect firearms and ammunition, cash and drugs of all types, also other dogs are trained specifically to search for explosives. All dogs are allocated to their handler and remain with that handler for the duration of their working life, they live at home with their handler and at the end of their working life most of the dogs retire and remain with their handler as a pet. The dogs and their handlers receive regular training from EX police officers because they know what they are doing, and how different dogs would react. Dog handlers are departmental, geographical because they operate within on area of the UK, and they are a specialist team as well because they are specially trained.

Police air operations team – the role of the police air operations team is to search for offenders and missing people, the police can request for assistance of these to help find the missing people, and they look at the radio channel to spot the missing person or offender. They provide detailed intelligence; they provide a primary pursuit response and co-coordinating grounds. A downlink facility enables police to see police control rooms to see the aerial view. When the team is up in the air looking for offenders they get to use the digital aerial photography which uses advanced photographic, and can use thermal imaging and video equipment, this allows them to see things such as when someone is growing weed in their house on the camera it would show a reddish colour and could make a suspicious so the police air team would notify officers on foot to go and check it out. The police air system is usually organised nationally however they deliver local. They provide effective coverage of urban rural areas. Police air operations teams are specialists because they have to be trained to be able to use all of the equipment that the police air operations teams use and they have to know how to fly a helicopter so they have special training for that as well.
Traffic officers – traffic officers help to manage incidents, they do this by managing traffic or reduce the chances of collision and incidents or even congestion on motorways for example. Traffic officers can clear debris from carriageways and re open routes when it is safe to do so. They have a number of things that they can do, if you broke down due to collision then traffic officers would help you through the