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Programs & Services  

Search and Rescue

SAR Program Overview • Ground Search and Rescue College • SAR Course Descriptions • Equipment • News • Affiliated SAR Organizations

SAR Program Overview

A young child disappears while playing in her neighborhood. An elderly citizen wanders away from home. A hunter does not return home from the hunt. Are these people truly lost? Did they become injured? Or are they a victim of crime?

Nearly all search and rescue missions will begin as a missing person report. Law enforcement is frequently presented with the difficult task of investigating and searching for missing persons. While many of these cases are quickly resolved through basic investigation, some cases may require a substantial effort to physically search large areas of land.

When time is short and local resources need more help quickly, they call the Virginia Department of Emergency Management's State Search and Rescue Coordination Center at the Virginia Emergency Operations Center (VEOC).

The center coordinates a statewide network of nearly two dozen professionally trained volunteer search and rescue (SAR) organizations that deploy highly skilled resources to conduct and support search and rescue operations.

SAR teams possess a wide range of skills and expertise including incident coordination and management, trained field teams and team leaders, trackers and track teams, search dog capability to include, mantrailing, air-scenting, and human remains detection, technical and cave rescue, swiftwater rescue, and air search via fixed-wing aircraft. On average SAR teams respond to over 200 emergency distress beacons from air or water craft and 80 plus missing person searches annually.

Search team members devote many hours of their time to training and practice to become proficient in their chosen discipline. Their dedication is driven by the desire to succeed, to overcome an adverse operational environment, to locate the missing, and ultimately, with the hope of saving a life. Search and rescue personnel are among the most dedicated and enduring members you will find in the public safety community.

For 24-hour emergency assistance and response:

• Citizens should call their local sheriff's office or police department (911).
• Local law enforcement should call the VEOC at (800) 468-8892.

For more information about the state search and rescue program, call (804) 674-2732.

Virginia is also the home of two FEMA Urban Search and Rescue Teams.

Follow the links below to learn more about them.

• Virginia Task Force 1 (Fairfax) [external link - opens in a new window]
• Virginia Task Force 2 (Virginia Beach) [external link - opens in a new window]