# Statistics in live search



## Catalina Valencia (Feb 20, 2008)

I was thinking on Patrick post,but didn't want to steal it and preferred to start a new one. For people not involved in SAR it may sound weird why, if we train dogs to find living people we get that happy when we even heard of a live find. My own team has 6 years of operative experience (I know, not too much, but still the first operative civil team of the country) and with several real searches and some corpses findings we still haven't found any living person and I know that is the reality for most of the teams over the world.

It is hard to explain to someone wanting to join the team that the probabilities are that low and that a finding, any finding, is a success on itself as there doesn't seem to be as much reward for them as to finding someone alive.

What is the rate of finds in your teams? Operations without any finding (wich I know is not a failure, you can't find someone who is not in your search area), dead find, live find... The question is orientated specifically for teams orientated mainly in live search.


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## Patrick Cheatham (Apr 10, 2006)

(It is hard to explain to someone wanting to join the team that the probabilities are that low and that a finding, any finding, is a success on itself as there doesn't seem to be as much reward for them as to finding someone alive.)

It is hard for people at first to understand that the chances are low. I think that once a person understands that clearing an area is as important as finding the person then they can become a team player. For me if I'm running the K9 portion of IC it's how I develop my whole search strategy and team deployments. So those with me have to understand that I need good feed back to make US successful.

(What is the rate of finds in your teams? Operations without any finding (wich I know is not a failure, you can't find someone who is not in your search area), dead find, live find... The question is orientated specifically for teams orientated mainly in live search.)

We do track these things but would not want to post. We also record every trail ran to review later for team debreifing and discussion.


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## Lisa Preston (Aug 21, 2008)

I'm not on a team right now, so have no stats to offer, C, but on the issue of training your new members on the reality...it's just as you've identified: a training issue. There are quite a few things that your aspiring people will have not yet realized about the realities of SAR work.

As you've pointed out, your team's newness may be a factor, too. With great training and managment, your call volume will only increase and as it does, so will your number of live finds.


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