Just a very quick post about a meeting I went to last night; where I hope I witnessed the birth of a new search and rescue team in Surrey.
Hosted by Surrey Police, with speakers from ALSAR, LSDogs and Sussex Search and Rescue, a core team of volunteers were gathered and will hopefully take on the setting up of the team.
For all the latest information view the SARworld website.
As you may have noticed from my recent writing on the POD of a Search Dog is 100%, I have been reading Greg Fuller, Ed Johnson and Robert J Koester’s book Man-Trackers and Dog Handlers in Search & Rescue – Basic Guidelines and Information. One of the reasons I was keen to get hold and read this book was because of the simple, but great idea contained within it’s pages – the idea that it is possible to successfully combine the two SAR disciplines of Tracking and Search Dogs into one field team unit.
I had been toying with the idea for some time for Lowland Search Dogs. A Lowland Search Dog team working as a Team consists of a dog, a handler and at least one support person. I have had some concerns [although this is probably too strong a word] for a while about the under-utilisation of this extra body. In my mind this person is a potential foot searcher who is being restricted from searching fully by having to accompany a search dog and handler [before you comment I am aware they do have a specific role - just that this role takes away search effort!]
I had been toying with the idea of spreading handler and support out more to allow for a “better” [?] search by the support alongside their support role. However, if LSDog support personnel were all trained at a minimum in track awareness [and better still at tracking] this would add a whole new dimension to the search dog team.
Obviously the dynamics of the team would change – but having the support walk the path, with the handler off the track so as to avoid track and sign contamination is not perhaps the most difficult change.
I’d be interested in your thoughts on this one…
After several years of messing around I have finally decided – with much prompting and encouragement from others – to get around to studying missing person behaviour within the lowland search environment.
ALSAR and LSDog teams deal with only a tiny fraction of all missing persons and indeed deal with only a small fraction of the types of misper that the majority of SAR teams deal with. The majority of lowland search callouts are for Despondents, Mispers with Dementia and Mispers with Mental Health Issues of one form or another. Likewise, the search environment is often very different – much more urban and sub-urban searches – very few wilderness searches!
As such the value of any data collected by these lowland search teams would be invaluable – to them and to the police who in the UK have the statutory duty for missing persons. Collection of such data has, in the past, been problematic. I have, therefore, recruited some volunteers who have indicated a willingness to collate such data.
As a pilot, I have asked these volunteers to do a retrospective look at their 2009 callout data. This will allow for a thorough testing of the form, and give them an idea of what data needs to be calculated/kept for future searches.
The form itself is based upon the ISRID form, and indeed any data collected will be shared with ISRID. However, several suggestions have also been incorporated into the form. These include tracking all types of callout – not just misper searches; multiple misper categories - often it is difficult to place them in one category; more detailed terrain and find location boxes and so on.
The form was put in an excel format – to allow collation of all the data from the year, and for ease of recording. Initial reports suggest it works, although the form is quite complex.
I will, of course, be sharing any data collected freely.
If you are interested in the study, or wish to collect data from you team, you can either download the excel form – ALSAR Stats Form, or contact me for more information.
As I slowly start to get my mind back into the real world after two weeks of Christmas activities, and start thinking about SAR again, it would be inappropriate not to mention the hard work that many SAR volunteers put in over my Christmas break.
Quite a few Christmases ago Bob Geldof implored us all to think about others less fortunate than us over Christmas [I know I'm showing my age!] and it is hard to really do so. But for many families, the anguish and, in some cases grief, of a missing person goes on – oblivious to the time of year. And the SAR volunteers keep going out, putting their own family life on hold for a moment, to help these poor unfortunate individuals and their families.
So, here is my, probably inadequate, list of the work done by ALSAR and LSDogs Units over the Holidays – with, as always, mine (our) thanks and admiration.
Berkshire Search and Rescue Dogs – 18th Dec. (Missing Despondent Female), 28th Dec. (Missing Despondent Male)
Buckinghamshire Search and Rescue – 23rd Dec. (Civil Contingencies Role), 28th Dec. (Missing Despondent Male)
Essex Search and Rescue – 20th Dec. (Missing Male), 23rd Dec. (Missing Male)
Hampshire Search and Rescue – 23rd Dec. (Missing Female with Dementia), 2nd Jan (Missing Female with Dementia)
Midshires Search and Rescue – 17/18th Dec. (Civil Contingencies Role), 20-22nd Dec. (Civil Contingencies Role), 26th Dec. (Missing Teenage Male)
SEBEV Search and Rescue – 18th Dec. (Missing Despondent Female)
Sussex Search and Rescue – 18th Dec. (Missing Male with Autism)
On the bottom of this I’d just like to add my thanks to two “commenters” who visited and took the time to comment on my website during my Christmas break. Thank you to Kris Manning (SEBEV SAR) and Johnnie Walker (SusSAR) for their very kind words – hopefully I’ll be able to “keep it up” through 2010.
From the way I write you would think that ALSAR is falling apart; I keep saying “one of the things we do badly is…”.
And guess what? Here is yet another thing that I believe ALSAR doesn’t do well at. Sharing knowledge; especially feedback and learning points from search exercise de-briefs and evaluations. But one of the newest ALSAR Units is going to lead the way on this.Read on…
Rob asked me to provide a write up of the Isis SAR exercise earlier this month. I’m sorry it took so long to do – university got in the way…
On Sunday 6th December, Isis SAR’s first full search exercise took place. The RV was at Chinnor Cement works, Oxfordshire, and searchers attending were from WilSAR, Isis SAR, SEBEV and LSDogs. We also had three guests from Thames Valley Police Service and one from TASR – Technical and Specialist Rescue, who offer Isis training in water access and ropes. WilSAR brought their new control vehicle, along with their kayaks and bikes. Isis SAR brought the inflatable rib they have access to, in order to see if this was an effective manner to search larger areas of deep water, and also brought the new control vehicle, which had been so kindly donated by WilSAR earlier in the week.
The search was pre-planned, based on a scenario of a typical male despondent. Adrian Smith (WilSAR) and Jennie Webster (Isis SAR) drew up and roughly prioritised the sectors the day before to ensure that the exercise did not involve too much waiting around for searchers while all the planning took place. Although this did significantly cut down on the waiting around, there was still a delay while waiting for people to get there, as confirmation from a few more people had been received. This was a main learning point for control, not to wait next time and to brief those who were there at the RV time.
Thirty five searchers took part in the exercise, with three in control. Two “directors” were present to answer any questions from the police as to what ALSAR teams do. Ten teams were sent out to sectors. These comprised of a bike team, a kayak team, two dog teams, six foot teams and a boat team.
Eleven sectors were searched, four of which covered the 300m radius surrounding the place last seen, and so were covered by two different teams each. The kayak team and second dog team were both redeployed to second sectors, and control were in the process of redeploying further foot teams when reports came in that the misper had been located. The teams covered a large area in a small amount of time, demonstrating a high level of skill and current search knowledge in all the teams that were present.
The search area covered the 300m radius surrounding the PLS, significant reflectors within the 50% radius (where 50% of the misper category would have been found) and main routes and paths within this area. Feedback from teams was encouraging, and no one reported that the sectors were inappropriate. The qualified search controllers attending were happy with the pre-planned search areas and gave lots of constructive feedback on how to improve the exercise next time, e.g. getting teams out searching faster and being more assertive in control.
On a personal note, I really enjoyed the day and it was a really useful experience to be in control for the first time, especially working alongside such experienced search controllers. I hope to improve next time I get to run control on an exercise – with more of an idea of what happens it should all go better the second time. I felt it was good to have an exercise area where lots of different kinds of resources could go out on the ground and it was very good to be able to work with members of LSDogs and find out more about their capabilities.
I hope that everyone who attended had a good time and felt that it was a useful exercise and worth the long drives that quite a lot of people made. We’d like to thank everyone who came for supporting us, and especially the WilSAR members who helped us organise and run it.
If anyone is reading this who attended, I’d love to hear any comments on how the exercise was set up and run, any feedback, whether negative or positive, would be really useful.
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