SAR Exercise & Demonstration Held Last Weekend

Badlands Search & Rescue held a mock exercise in tandem with a search and rescue (SAR) demonstration for the McKenzie County Sheriff's Office on Saturday, Dec. 2, out of the Little Missouri National Grasslands Bennett Campground.

In conjunction with the scenario of the mock exercise and demonstration, the command post was set up and operational on the night of Friday, Dec. 1.

Ten of the 18 members of Badlands SAR were on hand to showcase their abilities and make-up of the team. From the support squad that conducts all of the incident command and support functions to the team members that deploy as part of the ground search and sUAS roles.

The objective was two-fold, to evaluate team performance during a mock mission and to allow the sheriff's office to observe, evaluate, and participate from their key roles of the agency having jurisdiction, incident command, and working in a unified effort between the agency and SAR team.

This was a first as well for both the mock scenario, full team deployment and also for the sheriff's office to partake and be there in their respective and vital roles.

NDCC 37-17.1-28 states that the chief law enforcement officer of each jurisdiction is to oversee search and rescue operations. But, aside from giving that broad authority, it does not require any training or readiness standards to respond to such incidents creating often hindered responses or efforts due to lack of personnel available, training, equipment, and overall comprehensive knowledge of SAR-specific roles and practices.

Since 2018, Badlands SAR has worked to build an organization to help those agencies fill that critical gap that often negatively can impact the extremely important initial hours and days during a search incident. Data and statistics from all around the world agree on the first 24 hours of a missing person case to be the often-determining factor in a search becoming a rescue or a recovery.

Despite much hesitation and even push back when pursuing legislative action to improve upon this area, Badlands SAR has continued to train, develop a team, work with agencies that are open to assistance, and deploy to several cases in North Dakota and Montana now, mostly due to family members pressuring agencies to do more and request adequate help for finding their loved ones but also with agencies becoming more open and willing to accept outside assistance.

While it may be seen as a negative connotation by some, it has never been the goal to remove authority or transfer it. The goal has simply been to realize this is a topic that needs improvement badly, as well as quickly, and that it can be achieved through unified efforts and cohesion between government public safety and nonprofit public safety organizations. It takes time to build and develop something of this magnitude and this exercise and demonstration held in McKenzie County is a first and a huge step in the right direction for these types of incidents and the goal is to foster a partnership to strengthen readiness and abilities in this complex domain.

On hand at the exercise were four members from the MCSO; Chief Deputy Michael Ficken, Patrol Lieutenant Max Matthews-Kasner, Patrol Sergeant Joshua Trevena, and Patrol Deputy Sam Forstie. Each participated in the exercise. Each given a first-hand look at the SAR mapping system as well as a live feed from the command trailer of the aerial drone footage during the search.

In tandem with this demonstration, the team was also performing an evaluation of its members. Badlands SAR has worked to adhere to standards set by the National Association for Search and Rescue (NASAR) as well as developing or borrowing policy, procedures, tactics, and techniques from other SAR teams as well as incorporating expert-developed methods in topics of search theory, lost person behavior, and vulnerable children and adults.

It is an immense amount of information to tie into a search team, but as the team has progressed and developed it is apparent that for the best outcomes possible, it is the only way to go in order to maximize the chances of success on real-world incidents.

Upon completion of the exercise, the after-action review took place around the campfire over grilled food and other fixings donated by CashWise, Bismarck. The participants conversed both in official capacity for the event but also socially in order to get to know one another. Now, it is up to seeing what the future holds for SAR in McKenzie County.