How many clues can you find?

I often hear of search exercise planners and Training Officers trying to add motivation to an exercise by ensuring that there are loads of clues dotted around for teams to find. There are two comments I have regarding this practice;

One; In the lowland search environment it is extremely rare to find clues that are useful to the search management team. Why? Because the environment we search in is generally well-trodden already. There are no lack of potential clues in any urban, sub-urban or even rural setting in most places in the UK. Everywhere you go you will find discarded clothing, litter, drinks cans and so on – none of which is useful, as the SMT cannot tell if it is the mispers or not. Compare this to a search in the wilderness of the US, where few people have been in the last year/two/ten years!

The one potentially useful clue in our environment is track and sign, which can, with a skilled tracker, be given a useful time frame – Passed here in the last couple of hours or the grass would have totally sprung back up, walked here before/after the rainfall six hours ago and so on. This is doubly so if there is a comparison print available, or even shoe type & size.

The second comment I have upon using clues for exercises is that it reinforces the wrong behaviour. Searchers are “rewarded” for finding every clue, not finding the missing person quickly. As such searchers have tended to search closer together and slower – sweeping up everything in their path. This is done to the detriment of the overall search effort and success of the search. [Greater information on why this is so can be found in the paper, Spaced Out Searchers]

Care needs to be taken then, when deciding whether or not to use clues in any exercise. Generally, my advice would be, if in doubt don’t put any out!

This is even more important when searchers are being assessed – either for their basic search techniques course, team leaders or re-assessment. I would want to know that the individual could search for a misper, NOT find and sweep up litter!

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