*** ILLINOIS SEARCH AND RESCUE - A NEW INITIATIVE ***

Fri Mar 15 10:03:47 1996
Letter  : 10406307    From: Patrick J. Keane
Address : pkeane@slip.net
Subject : Illinois SAR Initiative

To: sarinfo@mindlink.bc.ca

        ILLINOIS SEARCH AND RESCUE - A NEW INITIATIVE
        by: Patrick J. Keane
        Illinois Emergency Management Agency


Last year, as the update to the Illinois Emergency Operations Plan was being
completed, state emergency planners identified the need for the addition of
an important component to state planning - Rural and Wildlands Search and
Rescue (SAR).

Up to 1995, SAR in Illinois was handled solely by  local government,
with little or no coordinated support from state or federal assets.
Training opportunities, in State, were limited and SAR capabilities varied
radically. With approximately 200 persons reported missing and feared to be
in distress annually, it was obvious that a state SAR system was needed to
support this vital activity.

Through meetings with the federal and state agencies with SAR capabilities,
as well as discussions with local governments, a system was established to
streamline the SAR support structure in Illinois. This structure forms the
basis of the Search and Rescue Annex of the newly published Illinois
Emergency Operations Plan, and is implemented through the Illinois SAR
Manual.

The Illinois SAR system recognizes that the responsibility for the conduct
of SAR rests with the local jurisdiction. While there is no statutorily
mandated organization responsible for the conduct of SAR in Illinois, SAR
incident command has customarily been exercised by the county sheriff's
department unless other, locally developed procedures have been put in place
by the county officials.

The Illinois Emergency Operations Plan calls for the Illinois Emergency
Management Agency (IEMA) to serve as the State's SAR coordination agency,
providing technical expertise, coordination, and resource management support
to local, state or federal organizations prosecuting a SAR case.
Fortunately the task of organizing to support this mission had already been
started over the past two years through updated agreements between the IEMA
and agencies such as U. S. Air Force Rescue Coordination Center, the
Illinois Wing of the Civil Air Patrol, and the U. S. Coast Guard.

On January 15th, the IEMA instituted a 24 hour SAR Duty Officer, whose
function is to manage SAR related requests. The duty officer is familiar
with SAR planning, operations, state and federal resources, and is
authorized to commit state resources to a local SAR operation. The SAR duty
officer is the link for local jurisdictions into the State SAR system.

Another area of concern was the availability of standardized training in
SAR. After discussions with several local officials, a three-tiered training
program was proposed.

The first program is SAR Awareness, a two hour awareness level program
geared towards potential county level SAR incident commanders. This program
concentrates on introducing the basic concepts of SAR, and discusses initial
response. This course was developed in-house and includes the most current
thought available on initial SAR operations. To date, it has been taught in
6 counties.

The second, and more ambitious program, is the 2 day Search Planning Course.
This program was developed for county SAR planning staff and focuses on
both the art and the science of search operations including lost person
psychology and behavior, search theory, search probabilities, resource
allocation, map reading, a tabletop SAR planning exercise and much, much
more. This program was also developed in-house, and incorporates the most
current thought on SAR theory in North America. 

Both of these courses are being taught by IEMA staff who have completed
extensive SAR training, including the National SAR School, Inland Search
Planning Course.

The third program will be a Search and Rescue Fundamentals Course, which
will focus on the specific skills necessary for a field search team member
or search team leader who may be involved in a SAR mission. This course is
under development and is scheduled for completion by the fall of 1996.

Other courses in the search and rescue arena being considered include SAR
Incident Command, Water Search Operations, and Law Enforcement Search.

With the extensive use of state aircraft in SAR cases, state SAR aircrew
training was developed in conjunction with the Civil Air Patrol and the
Illinois Department of Transportation, Division of Aeronautics. Specially
selected staff from IEMA, Illinois Department of Corrections, and Illinois
Department of Natural Resources-Law Enforcement received two days of
intensive aircrew training. A FLIR (forward looking infra-red) training
program is currently being developed and will be fielded for certain state
aircrew in early April.

We at IEMA are proud of how far the Illinois SAR efforts have come in the
last year and look forward to improving on what is already proving to be a
highly responsive system in the near future.

Patrick J. Keane
Illinois Emergency Management Agency

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