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msar-riders - Re: [MSAR] Propose to your local AHJ

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  • From: Una Smith <una.smith@att.net>
  • To: Mounted search and rescue <msar-riders@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [MSAR] Propose to your local AHJ
  • Date: Fri, 17 Feb 2006 22:16:00 -0700


Re the general question "who is your AHJ", Chuck Daniel wrote:

>This can be tricky since in rural areas search operations a conducted by
>volunteer fire departments. If the circumstances which might involve a
>crime, then the sheriff is in charge. Only when a situation becomes a major
>disaster would the EMA become involved.

The point is, you want to plan a callout procedure for your unit
that will be acceptable and effective for all AHJs to which your
unit expects to respond.

Callout procedures do not dictate who is in charge of a mission;
they merely define who can call you out, and how.


Una Smith wrote:
>> The next question: what specific SAR needs do your AHJs have?
>> And which of those needs are not currently being met by other
>> SAR units? And which of those needs, particularly the *unmet*
>> ones, could your unit reasonably be prepared to meet? For
>> example, rarely are there enough local resources available for
>> hasty and/or night search (hasty searches often are night
>> searches), and horses are particularly valuable for both kinds
>> of searches.

Chuck Daniel wrote:
>Our group, unlike two of the six groups in Ohio, is SAR. These two groups
>only want to do searches and one of them does not do any night riding.

Back up. Have you defined your response area? Is it your entire
state? If not, some or all of these other units are irrelevant
to your task at hand, which is evaluating your AHJ's actual needs.
In your response area, how many SAR missions occur in a typical
year? What agencies run them? How many of these missions operate
at night, or would operate at night if there were more resources
available at night? Let's pretend most SAR managers within your
response area prefer to suspend operations at night even when
resources are available (let's hope not, but in some places this
is normal); in this pretend scenario, training and equiping your
unit for night operations would be wasted effort. Right?

Define your AHJ(s); determine their major unmet needs; determine
which of your capabilities meet which of those needs. If Knox Co.
EMA is likely to call you only once every 5-10 years, but ODNR may
call you once a month, should you focus your training and planning
around Knox Co. EMA as an AHJ? You might even tell them thanks for
asking, but we'd prefer not to write an MOU with you at this time;
our focus is SAR within ODNR. If you ever need us, please contact
ODNR.


>In addition we are available 24/7/365.

Many units are always available, in theory. But what about in
practice? Major holiday? Away on vacation? At work? On call
(your LPN and DVM)? Rider or horse or transportation not 100%?
How many really are likely to be available, on any given day?
Your unit has been in operation 4 years; have you kept data on
your past callouts, so you can tell the AHJ that your response
in the past has been X, Y, Z?


>[We] would focus on search, rescue, and disaster emergency
>response.

That is a good start, but still too broad. Search: what kind?
Hasty, night, ELT, visual tracking, scent tracking, containment,
area, line? Crime scene preservation? Investigation? Will you
do body recovery? By what means? Do you have prior experience?
Field: what kind of terrain restrictions? Ohio seems to have a
lot of water. How far will you swim your horses? (Do they all
swim?) Rescue is also very broad: make your focus far sharper.
Disaster response: what kinds of disaster, on what timeline?
Do you have your own support: self sufficient food, water, safe
resting space, sanitation, electricity, fuel, and supplies for how
many days? Do you have prior experience? Precisely what kind?

Una Smith
New Mexico




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