Critiques/2009-05-05

From PCSAR

Suggestions coming from the May 5 critique for the mock search that day and the previous Anderson search.

• Not able to get call-out people on incidents. Suggest have lead call-out coordinator on-call for month or 2 week period like manager-on-call. Suggest get more call-out people.

• Using old call out list. Confusion when coordinating with other call-out person. Suggest use same list. Suggest having index by name and split index.

• Merging teams can cause confusion in command/reporting structure. Suggest clear language of merging vs. working together. Suggest switch to single FRS channel for new team.

• Map becoming available only after given assignment relative to locations is sometimes confusing. Suggest map orientation should be first.

• Suggest have minimum of 2 people approach door for member safety and to give assurance of legitimacy to resident.

• Suggest when urban searching at night have patrol vehicle or other equipped with alley lights and search lights accompany teams to speed up searching of front yards and vehicles. Could expect Pincher RCMP to support in this way.

• Suggest having roving support vehicle for urban search teams for food, water, warming, transport.

• Suggest mark sidewalk with chalk in urban search to indicate what has/hasn't been searched by which team. Could make easier to recognize sweep boundaries. Could be tied to end of walking/tracking stick. Could develop convention for markings "X" like disaster search.

• Suggest wear reflective vests for urban night search for higher visibility vs normal street clothes. Makes team seem less suspicious when seen by resident in their yard.

• Suggest use rope as tag line when extracting stretcher on slope.

• Suggest continued use of carpooling to search in e.g. Lethbridge. Better safety on way back when tired.

• Suggest search areas that are difficult can be reexamined by strategically spotting from point of advantage. E.g. thick brush along creek spotted from other side.

• Suggest having arrangement to call-in when driving alone back from a tiring search (e.g. night search). To confirm safe arrival.

• Discussion of degree of discretion to work outside assigned segment. Suggest need for clarification of when should talk to command post vs. decide on own.

• Suggest encourage members in field to discuss overhead decisions after search as learning opportunity.

• Suggest get gel pens which won't freeze.

• Debriefing forms don't match urban context. Suggest rework wording.

• Suggest everyone get experience of working comms and command post.

• Having many people approach Alzheimer sufferer likely to cause trauma.

• Suggest when spotting subject, maintain visual contact until part of party approaches. Can lose perspective as approach.

• Suggest better learning if everyone can see handling of first approach to subject.