Search techniques include sign cutting, interviewing and attraction. Today I'll talk about interviewing.
INTERVIEWING:
The people you meet on the trail can provide valuable information. Your search and rescue team can gain information about whether the subject might or might not have been in the area. However, one problem your search and rescue team may find is that everyone wants to help. Most want to be involved. Untrained people may try to make what they've seen fit the person your search and rescue team is looking for. They don't mean to be leading you astray, they simply want to help.
Teach your search and rescue team to learn the information they seek without leading people with answers. Instruct your search and rescue team to intorduce themselves to people they find on trails and ask for a few minutes to ask a few questions.
They'll want to ask:
Where the hiker has been.
What the hiker has seen.
Get basic descriptions of anyone they may have noticed.
Be careful not to ask questions that suggest answers. If necessary, give general descriptions of your subject so that you are not tainting the person's own memory. If the interviewee doesn't seem to have any useful information, your search and rescue team can embelish the description of your subject to see if it jogs their memory.
Before leaving the interview, have your search and rescue team ask the interviewee to call the Sheriff's Department if they remember anything later. Assure them that your subject is not in any trouble, but people are very concerned about them.
Tell your search and rescue team to try to get the answers without taking notes. Some people get nervous when you write down what they say. After the interview, your search team should make detailed notes.
Find more information about search and rescue techniques from these books:
Fundamentals of Search and Rescue
Tom Brown's Field Guide to Nature Observation and Tracking
