Call Outs
What happens when the team is called upon?
It all starts with someone calling North Wales Police (NWP) for help - either an individual or another organisation such as the Welsh Ambulance Service. NWP may decide from the initial call that our help is required, or they might conduct their own searches and enquiries first. They then contact our ‘on-call’ Search Operations Planner.
Our search planners will assess the call-out, formulate an initial plan and send a Call-Out Alert to all team members to rendezvous as soon as possible at a specified location. Many of our volunteers come straight from work or family commitments. Designated members of the team will collect our control and equipment vehicles en-route.
Search
During a missing person search, our Incident Control Point is set up, using radio and internet-based communications plus specialist computer systems to plan, coordinate and record an incident as it progresses. A Police Search Advisor (PolSA) from NWP may also co-locate with our Search Operations team in our Incident Command Vehicle.
From this base, our qualified volunteers will be organised into parties, led by a Party Leader, and commence their search in pre-defined areas identified as significant locations in which the missing person might be.
The teams will continue to search designated areas until:
- The missing person is found, or;
- The Police call off the search (such as when new information comes in), or;
- The Police suspend the search due to the weather or light making it unsafe for the search to continue.
Rescue
During a rescue operation, we may not require the Incident Command Vehicle, instead utilising our 4x4 to transport kit as close to our casualty as possible. From there, we deploy a rapid response team to assess the casualty and report back to base. The information provided is used to determine what additional resources may be required, and to ascertain the safest and most efficient course of action.
A rescue is complete when a casualty is safely in the care of an appropriate service, such as the Welsh Ambulance Service. To achieve this, we may work alongside other services, such as:
- The Coastguard helicopters
- Ambulance services
- Rope rescue specialists
We operate in all weather conditions, night or day. All team members are qualified first aiders, and we also have members with a higher level of medical training including nurses.
All volunteers are prepared and equipped to operate for up to 8 hours without relief, but it is not unusual for searches to extend beyond that. Very often, the call out comes late in the evening or very early in the morning, once the Police have exhausted all other avenues.
The Team have responded to a number of call outs since becoming operational in the summer of 2018. We’ve been able to reunite missing people with their family and friends and, where the outcome was far more sombre, provide closure for their loved ones. Search and Rescue is demanding but incredibly rewarding, and we’re all proud to be part of the team providing a vital service to our community; it’s why we volunteer.
Feedback
Although we don’t expect it, we sometimes hear back from those we rescue.
We’re delighted to know that they are well and on the mend. In one example, after we rescued an injured walker, we had a lovely response on social media from his friends, which makes it all worthwhile:
"These wonderful people rescued one of our rambling group who had a fall and damaged his knee on a castle in a difficult to access area near Beaumaris. They all gave up what they were doing to come to the rescue, assessed and safely got him down from the castle and stretchered him at least 0.5 mile to a road to await an ambulance. Well done – brilliant team."
We’ve also received praise from North Wales Police; the team were awarded a Commendation by a Superintendent at Llangefni Police Station in December 2019, in recognition of our efforts and help with searching for vulnerable missing people.