No Need For Sherlock Holmes: A New Missing Persons App

No Need For Sherlock Holmes: A New Missing Persons App

This post is also available in: heעברית (Hebrew)

A recently developed app is designed to aid first responders in finding missing persons. The app, called Lost Person Behavior App) was developed by a group of first responders in the Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) of the Department of Homeland Security and in cooperation with Search And Rescue (SAR) teams across the nation, and has already been proved successful in Virginia, U.S.

The new app provides step-by-step instructions on search plans for first responders and response teams. It provides search guidance, protocols and strategies used by SAR teams around the nation.

“When someone goes missing, the first few minutes and hours of the search are critical. A key to the success of search and rescue SAR teams is an aggressive, well-planned initial response,” DHS said. According to them, “many times, first responders on scene in a missing person search don’t have the extensive training and development of initial search plans that specialized SAR teams have.”

Using data from over 150,000 missing person cases across the country, the app provides guidance, tactical briefings, investigative questions and statistics for over 40 different scenarios. These include lost hikers, hunters, children, missing vehicles, despondent individuals, dementia patients and climbers. It also provides guidance for snow and water incidents.

“The Lost Person Behavior app is designed to provide a step-by-step checklist for first responders as well as everyday citizens involved in search and rescue efforts,” said S&T program manager Christine Lee. “The app incorporated the feedback from SAR teams across the country for the development a comprehensive set of data, such as what questions to ask and what resources to use.”

DHS said, “The app identifies high probability areas where an individual goes missing so searchers can initiate rapid response. It also breaks down the categories of lost people with related behavior profiles and provides a checklist of questions to ask friends and family of missing individuals.”

This interesting app was revealed last spring and in available for a fee. We can only hope that these comfortable, useful innovations will leave something for the human mind.

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