Managing urban search and rescue operations can be amongst the most difficult and challenging Search and Rescue (SAR) tasks the experienced Incident Commander may ever be asked to undertake. Yet, no text or course has previously existed that focuses and adapts the principles of wilderness/rural search management on the urban situation.

Though the general Search principles that we have learned for the wilderness setting will generally apply to the urban area, specific procedures used during most wilderness SAR operations will not directly apply to the typical urban SAR incident. The wilderness procedures for containment, travel aides, subject behavior and geographical barriers do not readily translate into workable techniques for the urban SAR incident.

Additionally, the urban environment of concrete and asphalt also adds a complexity to Urban Search planning. Travel distances are often much greater in the Urban setting. Travel on pavement is much easier than through fields and countryside. The presence of Rapid Transit Systems, Buses and Taxi Cabs make it possible for the missing individual to be out of the search area before the Search even gets started. Couple this with the significant possibility of potential criminal activity, and of largescale public involvement, and the incident can quickly expand into one that is very difficult to manage in an organized and effective manner.

The purpose of this course and text is to address urban search. It is based on the rural/wilderness oriented “Search Management for the Initial Response Incident Commander” text and course (See credits on title page) and has been developed and written by a panel of urban search management practitioners.

This text and course utilizes “the Six Step Process,” a recognized approach to tackling an operational problem. It specifies a sequence of steps to take from the point at which the problem first manifests itself up to the implementation of the action needed to resolve it.

As in the rural or wilderness setting, the initial response to the urban incident should also be rapid, protect the scene, provide a quick analysis and alert of the situation, and move to quickly confine the movement of the subject. (Remember, “search is an emergency.”)

In this course you will learn that it is imperative that the “300-meter rule” be observed on every search. The 300-meter circle around the point last scene must be the first and most thoroughly searched segment (and the subject’s residence should be searched a number of times).