BACKGROUND

In the 1980s, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department, with the assistance of the Southern Arizona Search Association and representatives of the University of Arizona, conducted a series of search and rescue experiments to provide statistical data to augment the existing range of search probabilities where desert and mountain searches are concerned.  Until that time, there was no reliable information to estimate the probability of detection by helicopter while searching for lost persons in the desert and mountain regions surrounding the Tucson area. These experiments, known by many in the search and rescue community as the “Helicopter Experiments” were published and relied upon worldwide in search and rescue operations.  The information was also incorporated into the Computer Aided Search Information Exchange (CASIE), which is a data base of information on human behavior gleaned from myriads of information over the past two decades worth of searches and rescues around the world.

EVENT SUMMARY 

As a leader in the local search and rescue community, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department is hosting a search and rescue experiment called “Detection in the Desert.”  The object of the experiment is to estimate and test search and rescue ground personnel in probability of detection in the Sonoran Desert using grid-search techniques. The information gathered will be entered into the CASIE system and will be available as a search information tool worldwide for high desert regions.

This experiment has caused considerable excitement in the search and rescue community. It will occur in the Green Valley area on Saturday, March 15th from 0800 – 1700 hours.  Among those participating are individuals who are considered the authors of critical spacing search techniques as well as the creator of the CASIE system itself.  We have volunteers from all over Arizona, in addition to participants from New Mexico and Massachusetts. Local volunteers include the Pima County Sheriff’s Mounted Posse, Sheriff’s Auxiliary Volunteers, the Southern Arizona Rescue Association, and representatives of the US Naval Reserve Unit (Tucson).