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msar-riders - [MSAR] Searching for clues / Hasty searches and teamwork

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  • From: "Jorene Downs" <Jorene@CEOates.com>
  • To: <msar-riders@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [MSAR] Searching for clues / Hasty searches and teamwork
  • Date: Tue Dec 10 03:22:00 2002

From: "Una Smith" <una@lanl.gov>
> The bigger the search, the smaller the odds that your
> team will find the subject. But the goal is to find the subject,
> not to beat the other teams.

You did such a great job in your comments I hesitated to post this thought
because I didn't want to detract ... but for the sake of clarification for
newbies I'll point out that on a SAR you are - or should be - actually
focused on looking for clues. Finding the clues hopefully directs the search
to locate the biggest clue of all - the missing person. And if the situation
goes south and the SAR evolves into a criminal situation, those preserved
and appropriately handled clues may well be critical in court. With my
background in law enforcement it is easier for me to fall into the mode, but
essentially your mind set for every SAR must be that you're in a possible
crime scene ... keep your eyes and mind open to all possibilities, and don't
contaminate the scene.

Sadly, some of the SAR incidents do end up with crime scenes. The tough part
for management is to figure out when to pull the plug on normal SAR search
tactics and transition to something like the tactics used for child predator
abductions ... when you'll likely end up with several pertinent crime scenes
with evidence to preserve.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Jorene Downs
Tulare County, CA
SAR, MSAR, Swiftwater Rescue, US&R






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