Too often search exercises are run in the same old places. The reasons for this are clear – often close by, easy to park etc. etc. However, by doing this the exercise loses so much. TLs don’t need to navigate, SCs don’t need to think about RVs, Units don’t need to think about annoying residents and no one needs to really think!

So what should you think about when selecting an area? This post is about pre-exercise planning of search areas – next week I’ll write about practical aspects of selecting a search area.

Each ALSAR Unit should have a record of where they have searched in the past in their county. They will have a record of outstanding high risk mispers in their county and will have a list of SAR Pre-plans. Between these three, each Unit should have a list of training locations that would last at least a year or two of exercising every month!

Looking back over your Unit’s search data search exercise planners will start to get a feel for where they are called out to in their county. There are regular locations in every place – hospitals where despondent and those suffering from mental health issues go missing regularly, beauty spots which despondents regularly seek out and country parks, woods etc. which often provide the setting for searches.

If you have a location where you often get called out to, it makes sense that you have a search pre-plan of the area and that this is regularly practiced. And this means holding an exercise in the area – especially if you haven’t had an actual search incident there for over twelve months.

So look back over your past data – find those locations where multiple searches have been held for different mispers and make a list of them. This in itself should provide ample areas for search exercise planning.

There is one additional source of search exercise areas – areas where your county has outstanding high risk mispers. At some point search operations are suspended – the police and search management team have to weigh up the likelihood of successfully finding the misper in what could be very large search areas taking into consideration that search volunteers can’t take unlimited time off work etc. [It is a horrible call to have to make and probably the one hard thing SCs have to do alongside potentially dealing with the family.]

This means though that the misper could be lying dead, just outside the high probability search areas. During an actual search it is unrealistic to search these – but when looking for search areas for exercises, why not visit these areas?

It obviously takes some tact. A visit from the family’s FLO to explain that the Unit is exercising in the area, and are aware of the misper’s details, not to get their hopes up but that the police and search team are still thinking about the misper and so on. After all – if we can find their relative at least they could start the grieving process.

So next time you plan a search exercise – don’t just head to the nearest country park with easy parking, toilets and that you use every time. Take some time to study what your Unit actually does and where it actually searches and start exercising here.

And if you run out of these areas to search, at least you will have a much better feel for the types of search area you need to look for to plan your next search exercise!

Return to Search Exercise Planners Handbook Index