Mounted search and rescue

[ilichten1@verizon.net]

The SAR community has been faced with several challenges. Some are old and some are newer.

The new technologies have reduced much field work to, "go here and pick up the subject." The large scale,

long term mission, especially in the more civilized parts of the country, has almost disappeared. If I can use

phase 2 location on a cell phone I can reduce the search area to a few hundred feet radius.

The incidence of walk a ways from institutions has also decreased as these facilities realize their responsibility

to their patients and either lock doors or use tracking devices. 

 

We have to continuously reeducate the authorities in areas where SAR is not a government function as to the resources

available to them on a volunteer basis.  In some cases the authorities have used untrained spontaneous volunteers

for inefficient searches rather than calling in experienced behavior modelers, clue detectors, or trackers because they

may not know of them or want to accept the risks associated.  If there is only one or two searches in a jurisdiction each year

the people who are in charge will be different for each mission, and have a different set of resources they call on.

 

Irv Lichtenstein

SEPASAR