Mounted search and rescue

[Una Smith <una.smith@att.net>]

Dana Snyder wrote:
>Does anyone know who the state agency responsible for SAR in Kansas
>is?

Is none.  Nor is there any state SAR membership association.  (FWIW,
some US states have one or the other;  a very few states have both.)


>To my knowledge, the only SAR units are in Topeka and a sherriff's
>posse in Salina.  The Topeka unit has a canine division, but not
>MSAR.

You can learn a lot from a dog SAR team.

There is a volunteer mounted posse also in Shawnee County.  They
appear to be active:  they are managed by a career police officer
and in 2006 they were looking into getting Workers Compensation
(basic insurance to cover personal employment income lost due to
injury sustained while at work).  Back in 2003, a local newspaper
article about them gave their requirements as follows:

- Be at least 16 years old.
- Have no felony convictions.
- Have access to a horse.
- Complete a 40-hour certification course with their horse.
- Receive certification in search and rescue.
- Participate in at least one-fourth of all scheduled functions.


There is a dog SAR in Wichita too.  There is an independent SAR
in Halstead (south central Kansas) and I think they operate also
in eastern Colorado.


>The next nearest working unit to Kansas City is the Jackson
>County Sherriff's Posse in Missouri and they have offered to help
>train a new group if it can get established.  

Too often, getting started is a chicken and egg problem.  Without one,
you can't get the other.  You can't get established without a nucleus
of someone who knows the ropes, but you can't learn the ropes without
first being established.  So either you wait for someone to move into
your area who does know the ropes, or you go train with an established
group outside your area.

Another way to get a leg up is to read Don Cooper's excellent book!
That will put you on an equal footing with any SAR ground field team.

A lot of NASAR conference attendees are sheriff's deputies sent there
to get some idea of "the ropes" in a lecture format.  NASAR's 2007
conference will be in NASAR's "home" state, North Carolina;  word is,
the 2008 conference will be here in New Mexico, in conjunction with
ESCAPE, our annual SAR conference.


>The KCMO Police Department has a mounted patrol, but I do not know
>if they also do SAR.

As far as I know (AFAIK), they do not train for SAR but, like many
mounted patrols (both career police and volunteer), they will go out
and look for someone if called.

Hope this helps,

        Una