On Tue, 09 Aug 2011 01:29:20 +0100, Basil Jet
wrote:

The footage of the riots shows that some or all London buses now have
identifiers writ large on the roof, presumably so they can be identified
by helicopter. Does anyone know the purpose of this, and which incident
led to its introduction?

It's for easy identification using CCTV by the police and CentreComm

The codes refer to the operating company and the fleetnumber, e.g.
FRG 36101 = First, ELG or SCG 17500 = Stagecoach, ARL VLW138 = Arriva
London.
--
Thomas Covenant