How does the system work? Here is an example walkthrough of the process…
Let’s say Joe — the “Subject” here — slips while hiking up Pedernal and breaks his leg. If Joe’s lucky, his cellphone works, and he calls 911 himself. If he’s not so lucky, a couple hours after dinner time, his friend or partner or mother in Albuquerque notices that he hasn’t returned from his hike, and calls 911 out of concern for him. This person becomes the “Reporting Party” (RP).
In the first scenario, Joe’s 911 call gets transmitted via a cell tower, which automatically routes Joe’s call to the designated dispatch center, usually a regional police dispatch center. The whole country is split up into areas, each of which has a defined “public service access point” (PSAP) for that area. Check out this map to see what the PSAP is for your location, and where the cell towers are near you.
In the second scenario, the Reporting Party’s phone call is automatically routed to Bernalillo County dispatch — and when that dispatcher learns that Joe may need help on Pedernal, he’ll call the appropriate regional dispatcher.
In either case, the regional dispatcher assesses the location and the situation (from Joe himself or his mother) and usually tries to activate local resources to resolve it. This might include Los Alamos Police Department officers, Los Alamos Fire Department, etc. Regional dispatch may even call a private medical helicopter company like Classic Air (based in Los Alamos) if it seems appropriate.
The responders (police or fire)— or perhaps the regional dispatch directly— decide at some point that they lack sufficient resources to handle the event, and call state police dispatch. This is how we get involved. Sometimes they call immediately, without even bothering to deploy regional resources, if it is obvious that SAR will be needed. Other times it might not be obvious, and the local LEO (law enforcement officers) might investigate first, maybe even walk a short distance up a trail, maybe call the fire department. Lots of possible SAR incidents can be resolved at the regional level without ever needing our involvement (this happens more or less often, depending on the locale).
Anyway, let’s assume they decide they need some SAR response. To get SAR, they call the state police dispatch. There are three NM state dispatches: NORCOM, CENCOM, and SOCOM. There are twelve New Mexico state police districts. Here is a map of how the state is organized into the districts and regions. Los Alamos is in District 1, which is handled by CENCOM (based out of Albuquerque). Taos is in D7, which is handled out of NORCOM (out of Las Vegas). When CENCOM gets the call from regional dispatch, they first take the location and determine in which district it is located. Usually, dispatch will then activate a state police officer to respond to the call.
At some point, the state police officer decides that the incident probably requires SAR volunteer resources (to be blunt, state police officers are not equipped to hare off into the woods in the middle of the night to search for a missing person; they have other duties). Dispatch (and now we’re talking about state dispatch, e.g. CENCOM in this example) consults their current SAR schedule to determine which Field Coordinator (FC) is currently on duty for D1.
CENCOM phones the on-duty FC and explains the situation. The on-duty FC decides whether the incident requires a SAR response. In order to warrant a SAR response–and to initiate a mission–there are a few requirements that must be met. First, there must be a starting location; this might be the subject’s vehicle, or the trailhead at which he/she was dropped off. Without a starting location, we just can’t do much. Second, the subject must need SAR-specific assistance, i.e. an emergency situation that involves searching or rescuing. Stereotypically, this means an outdoors incident, away from roads where other forms of aid are available. (Consider: a SAR mission is not appropriate for a house fire, or a medical emergency at a football game.) Third, the subject must want our assistance, either explicitly (the subject calls 911 directly) or implicitly (we assume that the subject would want our help, if there were some way to get a hold of them). We don’t search for fugitives. Fourth, the scene of the incident must be safe for the SAR responders. SAR in New Mexico is largely performed by volunteers, and we do not knowingly put volunteers in hazardous situations.
If the FC determines that a SAR mission is warranted, either an involved state LEO (Law Enforcement Officer) or the FC can initiate a mission. “Initiating a mission” consists of requesting a SAR mission number from dispatch. At that point, whoever took that responsibility-wither the LEO (law enforcement officer) or FC—becomes the “mission initiator”.
Once a SAR mission is initiated and has its official mission number, the FC (Field Coordinator) becomes the IC (Incident Commander) for that mission. This is a somewhat subtle distinction to those not affiliated with SAR. Consider: as I sit here writing this I am an FC, but I am not an IC until I go active on a mission. (That said, I often simplify things and tell friends or family that I’m an Incident Commander rather than a Field Coordinator, just to avoid having to explain the distinction.)
At that point, the IC needs to leap into action (first figuratively, but eventually… literally). A plan needs to be made. Even with the mission number in hand, it usually requires a healthy amount of additional investigation on the part of the FC in order to determine the appropriate response. What resources are needed? Ground pounders? Dogs? Drones? UTVs? Helicopter? Maps need to be consulted. The on-duty AC (Area Coordinator) needs to be notified (at any given time there is one AC on duty for the whole state, maintaining oversight of all active SAR missions). It can involve copious phone calls, maybe to the RP, or to the LEO on scene, perhaps to the subject directly, texting the subject, trying to obtain coordinates or at least a reasonable reliable location, maybe a call to the family, to obtain details on what the subject’s intended route was, timing of events, age and fitness level, what sort of water/equipment/food they might have had, last conversations, etc etc.
The IC then activates resources. This can be accomplished directly, by phoning the designated contact for an individual SAR team (like the Los Alamos Auxiliary Fire Brigade, for example), or indirectly, by employing the services of the on-duty ORDM (Ordering Manager). The Ordering Manager is an invaluable resource, acting as a one-stop shop for handling team callouts. The IC provides the necessary information to the ORDM, including what resources, how many, what the general nature of the incident is, and where and when the teams should report to the Incident Base (IB). Then the IC can pack and get on the road while the ORDM spends a few hours on the phone handling logistics of calling individual team dispatchers.
The individual team dispatchers contact all of their members (it begins to resemble an old-school “phone tree” from back in the day).
All the resources, including the IC and teams, converge on the Incident Base.
We search! We find! We rescue! At this point we must suspend the story because the evolution of each search will differ wildly based on the specifics of the situation.