There are many acronyms in use for SAR. Sometimes they grow onerous, but generally speaking they exist for a very good reason: efficiency of communications. Compare the following two sentences.
The LEO is on scene to meet with the RP and the SAR IC has requested GPs to IB by 0800. (31 syllables)
versus…
The Law Enforcement Officer is on scene to meet with the reporting party and the Search and Rescue Incident Commander has requested Ground Pounders to Incident Base by 0800. (48 syllables)
Here’s a list of the acronyms you might encounter:
- SAR Search and Rescue
- FC Field Coordinator
- IC Incident Commander
- AC Area Commander
- SC Section Chief
- Ops Operations Section Chief
- Plans Planning Section Chief
- IB Incident Base
- ICP Incident Command Post
- LEO Law Enforcement Officer
- PSAP Public Service Access Point
- CAD Computer Aided Dispatch
- RP Reporting Party
- IPP Initial Planning Point
- PLS Point Last Seen
- LKP Last Known Point
- POA Probability of Area
- POD Probability of Detection
- POS Probability of Success