Posts Tagged ‘Search Scenario’

Search exercise planners handbook – Part Seven

December 1st, 2009

Briefings

Out of necessity search exercises require two briefings. When it suits the exercise the first “exercise” briefing can be given to everyone attending all at once, with the “scenario” briefing being given to just the Search Management Team to allow them to brief the teams as they want. If the exercise is intended to practise callout procedures or similar then the “exercise” briefing may have to be given prior to the exercise, or in some circumstances the Search Management Team may have to give this briefing as part of the briefings to teams along with the scenarios and taskings.

What then is the difference?

All exercises should have an “exercise” briefing. This should clearly inform the participants of the parameters and objectives of the exercise. Participants learn more if given a “hook” to hang their learning on; an objective to aim for. [Interestingly research shows that you learn more overall if you are given a theme or objective, even learning more about subjects outside this theme, than if you aren't given any target or specific area to focus on!]

The “exercise” briefing can be used to inform participants of where they can and can’t go, how much to harass the local population and so on. Health and Safety should be mentioned at this point, outlining potential hazards if appropriate, reminding participants it is an exercise and we put ourselves in less risk during exercises than we would in actual incidents, and outlining procedures for any actual incident happening whilst on the exercise. This might include what would happen if a real search callout happened, or what would happen if an injury occurred or a member of the public required assistance.

Instructions on how the radios should be used during the exercise – possibly the use of “exercise message” prefix to all radio traffic – should be given along with any PRO-Words that should be used in the event of a real incident [NO DUFF?]

The “scenario” briefing can then be given. This should be as realistic as possible, even if this is not the most interesting. In some circumstances the Search Management Team can be given lots of information, in others limited information – again look back over past incidents. How much information are you generally given? If you ask for more, is this given? and when?

Use these answers as a guide to what scenario briefings should be like.

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Search exercise planners handbook – Part Five

November 18th, 2009

Picking your search exercise’s SCENARIO

One of the other things that often let’s down ALSAR search exercises is their scenarios. This is despite the fact that many search exercise planners and training officers spend a large amount of time coming up with these fantastic scenarios [or more accurately because they do!]

Classic examples of this include some probationary ALSAR Units’ assessment exercises such as the man who abducted his two children and is now deemed suicidal. Probably thought up to give a definate IPP and three mispers to find, the scenario is unrealistic. How often does your Unit get these calls? Does your local police really believe you are an appropriate resource to use for locating abducted children anyway? [Personally I'd have failed the Unit for not thinking about or mentioning this during the briefing - but I suppose if you are set this for your assessment, with police and assessors looking on you are stuck with it!]

So what scenario should you use? Guess what, you need to train for what we do. So go back to your Unit’s callout stats – find out what you are generally used for and start thinking about that as a scenario. Over two thirds of ALSAR callouts are for mispers with Dementia and Despondents. So over two thirds of your search training scenarios should be for these – unless your local stats tell you something different. This might happen; a coastal Unit may be called for missing children on holiday more – I don’t know, your Unit should!

Once you have your misper type, you then need to turn to your misper stats. Get out your well-thumbed copy of Koester’s Lost Person Behavior and find out what this type of misper does. How far they travel? Where they are found? How far from the track? In what sorts of environment and position?

This should form the basis of your planning for where the misper will be during the exercise. Whilst it is tempting to position the misper to be found at the “right” time when the exercise should end, try to avoid this – it will skew searchers expectations of where missing persons are found. Rather select an appropriate location according to the stats – 30% of the time in your exercises they will be close in and found quickly for instance [or hopefully they will], 20% of the time they will be found by R&P outside the hub and so on.

You can always plan an extra activity to follow the exercise if it finishes too early. However, most ALSAR Units do not leave enough time to properly de-brief and feedback following exercises anyway. UKLSI allows one and an half to two hours to de-brief the Team Leaders after their assessment exercise which last three hours – this is on top of their assessment feedback; just time for them to share what they have learnt from the exercise. This gives you an idea of how much can be learnt from this process and how little it is done after Unit exercises.

So pick your scenarios with care and attention to detail. They can make or break the exercise and its benefits to your Unit.

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