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SEARCH AND RESCUE

Search and rescue software that shows which ground has really been searched.

A missing-person search succeeds or fails on coverage: the right sectors, searched properly, with nothing searched twice and nothing skipped. Sinkaos puts sectors, searchers, tracks and finds on one map that works without signal, and leaves a record the police search adviser can rely on. In the UK the police are responsible for land search, and volunteer lowland and mountain rescue teams search on their request.

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ON THE BONNET

Forty volunteers, six organisations, one map on a car bonnet.

A search grows quickly. Police officers, a fire and rescue crew, search dog handlers, the local lowland rescue team and neighbours with torches all turn up within the hour. Each group has its own radio channel or chat, and the search manager is assigning sectors from a printed map spread on a car bonnet.

Then the hard questions start. Did team four search the whole of sector C, or only the paths? Who found the jacket, and exactly where? By 3 a.m. the briefing board, the radio log and the phones disagree with each other, and the next shift inherits the confusion.

NIGHT SEARCH

An elderly man missing from a village on the edge of a forest.

  1. 21:30
    The police request a team
    The police grade the man as high risk, bring in a police search adviser and call out the lowland rescue team. The team’s search manager opens an operation and marks the last known position and the initial planning point.
    OperationPlaces
  2. 21:50
    Sectors on the map
    Search areas are split into sectors by roads, streams and forest tracks. Each sector becomes a task with a priority and a search method: hasty search of paths first, then area search.
    SectorsTasksPriorities
  3. 22:10
    Volunteers join from a QR code
    Searchers from the lowland team, a neighbouring mountain rescue team and a search dog unit scan a code at the briefing and join as guests of this search only. Their phones download the maps and their sector.
    Guest accessMission packs
  4. 23:40
    Tracks show real coverage
    Recorded tracks fill in each sector. The search manager sees that a dog team has finished sector B and that the north edge of sector C is still empty, and sends the next team there.
    TracksLive location
  5. 01:15
    A find without signal
    A team in the valley logs a cap with a photo and position. It reaches the timeline at 01:15 when the team climbs back into range, marked as late, and the search area is narrowed around it.
    ObservationsOfflineTwo timestamps
  6. 03:00
    Found, and stand-down
    The man is found and handed to the ambulance crew. The operation closes, guest access ends, and tracks and the timeline are exported for the police and the debrief.
    ExportReplay
Mission plan of a demo flood exercise: a checklist of plan parts, a search area split into four sectors on the map, and a table of mission pack status for each member.
Search area in four sectors with pack status per member. Demo data.
FOR THE SEARCH MANAGER

Built around sectors and tracks.

Sectors as real records

Each sector has an owner, a method, a status and a history. Reassign or split it, or mark it searched with a note about conditions.

Coverage you can show

Searchers’ tracks are recorded with time and accuracy. Gaps in the data stay visible, so “searched” means somebody walked it.

Everyone on one picture

Police, fire crews and rescue volunteers see the same map within their roles. Location sharing is visible to the person sharing, and ends with the operation.

Finds with context

Clues and sightings as observations with a photo, position, time and confidence. Two clocks: when it was found and when the search manager learnt about it.

Briefings and handovers

A new shift reads the search from the timeline instead of a whiteboard. A SITREP can be built from the record.

After the search

Replay, export as GPX, KML or GeoJSON, and an after-action review built from what actually happened.

WORTH KNOWING

What it does not do in a search.

COMMAND
It does not take over command
The police keep overall responsibility for a land search. Sinkaos gives the team’s search manager and the police search adviser the same picture; decisions stay with them.
PROBABILITY
No automatic search planning
Sinkaos does not calculate probability of area from lost person statistics. You draw and prioritise sectors with the method your team uses.
TRACKING
Only people who agreed
Sinkaos shows the location of enrolled searchers. It is not a tool for locating the missing person’s phone or anyone else who has not joined.
SITUATIONS

Kinds of search it suits.

Missing people with dementiaMissing childrenOverdue walkersRiverbank and inland water searchesSearch dog deploymentsDrone searchLarge volunteer line searchesMulti-agency exercises
QUESTIONS

Asked by search coordinators.

Who is in charge of a search in Sinkaos?
Whoever is in charge in real life. Under the UK search and rescue framework the police coordinate search and rescue on land and inland waters, HM Coastguard covers the sea and the coast, and volunteer teams support them. Roles in Sinkaos follow that structure.
Can we take untrained volunteers?
Yes. Spontaneous volunteers can join by QR code with a limited role that shows their own task and the safety information they need, and nothing else.
Can drone teams share their picture?
A drone video feed can be added as a source and attached to a sector or a find, if the drone system provides a stream Sinkaos can read.
Is there a checklist for the first hours of a search?
Yes, we wrote one: our missing-person search checklist covers the first hours through to stand-down, whether or not you use Sinkaos.
RELATED

Run your next search exercise on Sinkaos.

Early access is free. Bring a real exercise and we will help you set up sectors, roles and packs.