Search Pre-Planning Ideas

It has been a week since the UKLSI Search Controllers course. Delegates on that course only qualify after passing an assessment assignment. The assignment is made up of two parts; a “critical” review of two past searches (the search management decisions made etc.) and to produce a Search Pre-plan from their local area.

Delegates should be in no doubt as to how useful this last part of the assignment is; to them and their Unit.

Imagine turning up to an incident and having all the mapping done for you already – master map already sectored; detailed terrain analysis to hand for each sector [along with aerial and digital photographs], hazards already mapped on and search hints and tips for each sector; sector maps already produced for Team Leaders; Contact details for access to various problem areas and so on.

Not only does it lessen the workload by a massive amount, but just think how professional it looks to the PolSA. If you are one of those Units struggling to prove your professionalism, what sort of impact do you think pulling out a pre-planned search would have?

It is not easy [no one ever said it was!] but the work is (or should be) well worth it in time.

The big question is where should you do your search pre-plan for? Well, its time to look back over those past incident records again!

Every county has a hospital which the Unit is called to at least once a year [if not four or five times a year]. If your Unit has been neglecting its pre-planning you should start here. In established Units, however, these search pre-plans should not only exist but be in use quite regularly. However, work down the list of common callout areas – unless you have a dozen or so Search Controllers – there will be a hospital, country park or similar that you can do a pre-plan for. Then start work… I’ll write some more about how in another post sometime!

December 2, 2009 · Robert Bradley · One Comment
Tags: PolSA, Pre-Planned Search, Search Controller Assignment, Search Controllers Course, Search Incidents, Search Management, Search Pre-Plan, UKLSI · Posted in: Search Thoughts, Search Training

One Response

Daryl Toogood - December 5, 2009

I’m looking forward to the next one in this series…

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This month's feature is the Missing Rights Campaign being run by Missing People.

If your house is burgled you are automatically offered emotional, practical and legal support. If your child goes missing you may get nothing.

Missing People. are calling on the Government to give families of missing people the same basic rights as victims of crime.

Over 250,000 people go missing in the UK every year. While most of us will have read or heard about a disappearance, little is understood about the emotional, legal and financial burdens it can bring to those closest to the missing person. Families left behind face their homes being seized, jobs being lost, divorce, social stigma and suicidal thoughts.

Here are the detailed aims and objectives of the Missing Rights Campaign. Without your support, though, they will not be able to bring about change for families of missing people.

Aim #1:
Families of missing people should know everything possible is being done to find their missing loved one.

Objectives:
•Every region to have a local missing persons coordinator who will hold local services to account
•Every family to have a named single point of contact in the police force dealing with their missing loved one
•All unidentified bodies to be cross matched with missing person reports

Aim #2:
Families affected by a disappearance should have access to support.

Objectives:
•Every family of a missing person to be signposted to Missing People’s free emotional, practical and legal support services by the police
•A network of specially trained counsellors to be developed to support the unique needs of families of missing people

Aim #3:
Families left behind should be spared the pain of unnecessary financial and legal bureaucracy.

Objectives:
•All banks to introduce standard mortgage arrangements for families of missing people
•All insurance companies to enable families to freeze or take over their missing relative’s policy payments.
•Presumption of Death Act to be introduced in England of Wales

Robert Bradley's Re-Search Website

The bloke that knows sh!t loads of dead cool stuff about search…

Search Pre-Planning Ideas

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