A two-day course that provides the education, training, and knowledge to manage a ground search for the first operational period.

Applicable for a wide variety of agencies ranging from park rangers to police officers or whoever has the mandate to conduct the initial response to a missing person incident

It has been estimated that at least 70% of incidents involving searches for missing persons are over in hours rather than days. Most of these searches, and indeed the first hours of the majority of incidents that last for a number of days, are managed by persons other than search specialists. These Initial Response Incident Commanders are often emergency-response general practitioners, for example deputy sheriffs, rangers, constables, troopers, police officers, fire chiefs or SAR team leaders.

The agencies these first responders represent have the legal authority and responsibility to search, but not the incident workload or resources to justify cadres of Search Management specialists ready for each overdue person report. These agencies need their field personnel to have the knowledge and ability to respond appropriately to overdue person reports, and to manage these incidents professionally and competently for at least the first operational period.

Until recently no course existed to directly address these requirements. Existing courses such as Managing Search Operations, Managing the Lost Person Incident and Managing the Search Function contain excellent bodies of knowledge. However, the sheer volume of information, the focus on mathematical theory and the emphasis on large, multi-day incidents contained in these courses does not provide a clear step-by-step practical approach for the Initial Response Incident Commander.

The need for a practical-based course focusing specifically on the fundamentals has become increasingly apparent as the body of knowledge contained in existing courses becomes more complex. Such a course must focus on the skills and knowledge needed for the first Operational Period, the only Operational Period common to all searches. It should also lay the proper foundations should the incident extend beyond that.