The most important part of an operation is to gather information for secure effectiveness and success. The collection of information is the responsibility of the Head of the Operation of SAR team and in his absence, the liaison officer of the team.
The collection of information already begins with the mobilization of the SAR team and continues until the end of the operation. All the information that enters should be recorded and the following procedure should be followed for their utilization.
No matter how useless the information may seem at first, it is likely to prove particularly important in the future.
For the most efficient and effective collection of information, there are four (4) basic steps:
- Information Collection
- Screening
- Evaluation
- Sharing
Information Collection: Research information should be collected as soon as possible and may come from a variety of sources that may be both reliable and unreliable. The information to be collected should initially be related to:
- The missing persons
- The missing objects
- The environment
- The topography and the relief
- The weather conditions
- Available Resources and Means
Screening: Once the information is collected it should be recorded and categorized in relation to the operation.
Evaluation: It should be taken for granted that among the overall information collected there will be irrelevant, unreliable, or outdated information. The leader and his team need to evaluate all the information and after discarding the junk to make proper decisions.
Sharing: After the evaluation, the data manager (Head of Event, Head of SAR team, Association, Operation Center) should transfer any information to the staff operating in the field, forward it to cooperating authorities (e.g. police), and inform the family of the missing person and the media. In any case, the information must be up-to-date, accurate, and relevant to maintain trust and reliability.
The next important step is the practice of their use which is none other than business planning search and rescue. Search and rescue are two separate parts of an operation which in turn have their stages of development. Based on this the design for each section should be done separately, with objective criteria and considering the most reliable information which is always available.
