Erie County Sheriff's Office
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Message from Sheriff Timothy B. Howard
Timothy B. Howard,
Sheriff
ERIE COUNTY SHERIFF CELEBRATES NYS SHERIFF'S WEEK BY ANNOUNCING FORMATION OF VOLUNTEER SEARCH AND RESCUE TEAM
Our Office recently teamed up with the Department of Environmental Conservation to kick off the first ever volunteer search and rescue team in Erie County.
It is called the Niagara Frontier Search & Rescue team and is the first dedicated search and rescue team comprised of citizen volunteers specially trained to help law enforcement and public safety agencies throughout Western New York in their search for missing or lost persons.
The impetus in helping to form this organization began nearly three years ago, when our Office was investigating the disappearance of several people including two elderly women from the southtowns who were ultimately found deceased in a barn in Colden. It was evident that we needed to draw upon a highly trained, local search and rescue team as opposed to always requesting out of town search and rescue personnel to assist when we have missing citizens.
There are roughly twenty active volunteers who have been specially trained by the Erie County Sheriff's Office; New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC); New York State Federation of Search & Rescue Teams (NYSFEDSAR) and the National Association of Search & Rescue (NASAR).
The cross section of volunteers meet every month and are schooled in incident command system; back country navigation- using a map; hasty search techniques; man tracking awareness; and helicopter operations.
They regularly participate in outdoor physical conditioning year round in all weather conditions; are certified by NYS rescue technicians and utilize the latest technology available including electronic mapping software, hand held GPS and search and management software.
All of the volunteers will respond to the 8 counties of Western New York- though the team may respond to participate in search efforts throughout New York State and the north east when requested by the NYS Federation of Search & Rescue Team.