Every year Lancashire Constabulary kindly offer to the Mountain Rescue Teams operating in Lancashire, places on their week long Missing Persons Search Manager Course.
This morning very experienced Bolton MRT Team Call Out list members Steve Fletcher and Chris Greenhalgh, respectively our Equipment Officer (Communications) and Equipment Officer (Vehicles) commenced their attendance on this Police nationally recognised course.
Held at Lancashire Constabulary Training centre at Hutton, within the HQ and Training complex of Lancashire Constabulary, this course attracted students from serving Lancashire Constabulary Officers, mostly of Sgt rank, with everybody present having experience of ’Missing from Home’ search enquiries and operations.
Today started at 09.00hrs at Hutton with a pleasant mixture of presentations, table top exercises and practical exercises, alongside resource demonstrations.
The whole course is excellently organised by Inspector Neil Sherry (A Police Search Advisor / POLSA) with considerably help from PC Alison Suffield, both of Lancashire Constabulary, with Kim Sturgess (also a Police Search Advisor).
The Bolton MRT is very grateful to Lancashire Constabulary for their fantastic support in allowing us to send team members to fully participate on this very valuable training course.
This year the course will culminate in a practical search exercise on Saturday 12th January 2013, being held in the Fleetwood area, involving Lancashire Constabulary Officers, Bolton MRT and Bowland Pennine MRT, with the students present on the course being presented with various exercise search scenarios to complete.
As the course commenced today, the importance of the course was brought home to all present when at 09.35hrs we were called out to assist Lancashire Constabulary with the continuation of a large scale search operation for a missing male, centred on the River Ribble at Ribchester, which had started the previous evening and gone in to the early hours of this morning involving assets from Lancashire Constabulary, Police Air Support Unit help, Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service resources and Bowland Pennine MRT.
In July 2010 our Team Leader Garry Rhodes MBE and Training Officer Elaine Gilliland attended this valued course, followed by our Team ‘IT’ guru and webmaster Paul Brain who attended this course in November 2011.
Their respective detailed reports on this course can be found within the ‘news’ section of our website for the relevant dates.
