*** Colorado SAR Board Policy ***

Date: Sat, 6 Jul 1996 21:38:09 -0600 (MDT)
From: "Howard M. Paul" <hmpaul@ecentral.com>
To: sar-l@islandnet.com
Subject: Colorado Policy on Not Charging for SAR (med - long)


With the recent discussion about charging our subjects for SAR, you may be
interested in the policy of the teams of the Colorado Search and Rescue
Board. The CSRB is a volunteer, not-for-profit, statewide coordination and
training organization. Its membership comprises individuals, sheriffs and
nearly every SAR team in the state. While not a Colorado state agency, it
does perform functions for the state government, by MOU. SAR in Colorado is
accomplished by volunteer professional units, excepting in NPS jurisdictions
and in perhaps one county. NPS uses volunteer teams for mutual-aid, and each
volunteer team usually is 1st or 2nd mutual-aid call for each surrounding
team.

Following is the text of our policy:

CSRB Policy Statement Regarding the Charging of Victims, or their Families,
for Costs and Expenses of Search, Rescue and Recovery Efforts.

December 8, 1987.

1. At no time, and in no manner, should an individual member of a volunteer
search and rescue organization benefit monetarily from rendering emergency
service to the subject of a search, rescue or recovery effort.

2. Volunteer search and rescue organizations will not charge for services
they provide pursuing or in support of search, rescue or recovery
operations; and no request for payment or reimbursement by other agencies or
third parties should attribute any portion of the amount requested to any
volunteer search and rescue organization.

3. Volunteer search and rescue organizations may call upon the services of
other organizations which routinely do charge, and for which services a
victim would normally consider to be customary to be charged. Such services
might include rescue or medical helicopters such as Flight for Life or
AirLife, ambulance services, or delivery of a victim into the care of a
physician, clinic or hospital.

4. Volunteer search and rescue organizations may obligate themselves for
extraordinary expenses with the expectation that the victim or his/her
family will reimburse them only if the victim, or family, has given prior
approval to the particular arrangement. This circumstance will be rare
because usually either limited time will preclude obtaining such approval,
or there will be sufficient time to permit the family to contract directly
for such services.

5. Volunteer search and rescue organizations are not opposed in principle to
requests made by themselves, sheriff's departments or other agencies, for
reimbursement for actual extraordinary expenses incurred by the
organization, department or agency; provided that such a request is clearly
an appeal based upon a perceived moral obligation under particular
circumstances, and that it is not a demand for payment nor apparently based
upon either legal right or routine policy. Any such requests should
be made privately and not publicized, so the victims and their families are
not embarrassed, and so the general public does not infer that such requests
for reimbursement are routinely made.

6. Volunteer search and rescue organizations will actively oppose and
disassociate themselves from any effort to enforce collection of expenses
from a victim or his family, and from any effort to obtain statutory or
other legal authority to do so.

Howard M. Paul   <hmpaul@ecentral.com>

Member, Alpine Rescue Team (MRA), Evergreen, Colo.
Vice President, Colorado Search and Rescue Board
Executive Secretary, EMS Association of Colorado, Inc.

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