Johnnie Walker’s Missing Person Search Analogy
I’m pleased today to be able to offer you a special guest post to the Re-Search website. Johnnie Walker from Sussex Search and Rescue sent me an e-mail today offering the following;
I have found myself using the following analogy quite a bit. Â Is there a place for it on your website?
I know that to you it is stating the obvious.  However, a saying I use quite a lot in SAR is ‘we always state the obvious.  That way, everyone knows the same obvious.’
A lot of Mispers die while search teams ‘patchwork’ sectors across the landscape, rather than producing a scenario based plan, and targeting specific areas by Misper type and specific intelligence. This is a search tactic that has grown out of Police forensic searching, and is actually very counter intuitive.
Imagine you are at the park with a child. They are on the swings.  You take your eye of them for a moment, and when you look back, they have vanished. Where do you search?
- You search the play park; purposefully wandering to check under the slide and in the climbing frame. This is your hub.
- You run to the pond, because you know they like to see the ducks, and the field at the edge of the park where the donkey lives. These are your reflectors.
- You run their route home, you check the home address, and then you go back to the park and check the route to their friend’s house. These are your spokes.
What you would never even consider doing is getting a map of the park and surrounding area, and searching each grid square one at a time. You might do that the next day, if they were still missing, but you would know in your heart that ‘search is an emergency’. You need to find them quickly, and to do this you need to search in very specific places; places you identify from what you know about them.
I obviously think there is a place for such wisdom on this website. I particularly like the “same obvious” quote!
So a big thank you to Johnnie for taking the time to think about sharing this with everyone on this website and for putting pen to paper.
If you have something to share, please e-mail me. I’m happy to put useful content on here from anyone! [Saves me writing stuff every day!]
December 3, 2009
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Robert Bradley · 
4 Comments
Tags: Grid Search, Hub, Misper, Missing Child, Missing Children, Missing Person Search, Reflectors, Scenario Based Planning, Search is an Emergency, Search Tactics, Spokes, Sussar, Sussex Search and Rescue · Posted in: Guest Posts, Search Thoughts
4 Responses
Hi Johnnie,
Firstly let me start by saying that I loved the analogy and I reckon it’s something i’m going to be using a lot, with due credit given of course.
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“A lot of Mispers die while search teams ‘patchwork’ sectors across the landscape, rather than producing a scenario based plan, and targeting specific areas by Misper type and specific intelligence.”
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That’s quite a statement, it captures the attention and focuses the mind however I’d like to know if there is any evidence to support that?
also, does any team really search by grid squares as opposed to scenario based searches (backed up by misper behaviour & SAR theory and intelligence) – If they do then I can only think that is is because they have been called our after the Police have already done the scenario based ‘likely places’ search. Certainly it was never taught as a first/second response tactic in all my years.
Although I do not think there are Search Units who believe it is effective to ‘patchwork’, I do believe that there are Units who Search in this way due to other pressures. I have been told before now from senior levels ‘I need to be 100% sure she isn’t in that wood!’ Great. I need six months and 200 searchers.
It all comes back to the issue of areas being ‘cleared’ (something I know will have Rob reaching for his keyboard) Senior officers want areas cleared. It fits with the Police Search model. This is an area where our brothers and sisters in the mountains are far more fortunate; no one expects Nevis to be ‘cleared’. I know of Police Services who ban purposeful wandering by their search volunteers. Yes, you read that right. Not insist on it. Ban it! Patchworking does exist. It shouldn’t, but it does.
I can hear Rob tapping away already
So, this raises a good point about using SAR teams not for their expertise and life saving ability but rather as resource only to cover the backside of the police service.
What scares me most is Police forces that are restricting the time critical periods of searching to uniformed officers and then, when that has failed calling in specialist teams to ‘mop up’ with this notion of 100% certainties.
Is the problem widespread? We don’t see this with TVP but we are lucky as our PolSAs are switched on to SAR and not often overruled by ‘senior officers’.
Are we aware if ALSAR is doing anything at a national level to address this?
It is so unfair. I’m reading all these comments on my phone, but can’t respond. Although to be totally fair; I don’t know if I should respond here, or write a totally new post on why 100% searches have no place at the start of a vulnerable missing person search. [Again! I'm sure we've visited this a few times before!]
It is undoubtedly a widespread problem! Don’t think for one second Kris that it doesn’t exist in TVP too! [In an attempt to stop Area Officers passing over the missing person case to PolSAs TVP introduced a aide memoir that PolSAs use to delay a full search - but that, again, is a whole new post! In some ways a perfectly reasonable thing to do; area have to retain responsibility for the investigation! But should this be at the expense of delaying search? ]
It does need to be addressed nationally; I haven’t heard of any ALSAR attempts to address it though. But, as you say, ALSAR Units are being used “as resource only to cover the backside of the police service” and not for their “expertise and life saving ability” in many cases.
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