(c)2015 John Hulse - SARCALL Slide 1

SARCALL – Improving the Multi-Agency Operational SAR Response

---2015 Rescue 3 Europe Technical Rescue Conference

John Hulse

john.hulse@sarcall.com

The Agenda…

• My Background and Role• Why SARCALL?• The Shift To Multi-Agency SAR Working

– Drivers– Enablers

• Delivering A Multi-Agency SAR Platform:-– Robust messaging– Shared situational awareness– Simplicity– Use the same trusted tools all the time!

• Examples of Improved SAR delivery• Summary

Migration To Multi-Agency SAR Working

• Drivers– 7/7 Bombing, Kings Cross, Floods, Shootings, the Pitt

and Pollock Reports…– Realisation that the response phase needs a wide

range of capability and effective coordination…– Public and political expectations– Civil Contingencies Act 2004– Financial constraints and increasing workloads

• Enablers– Reinforced “best practice” and JESIP– Joint ‘999’ Control Centres – New technology and improved communications

Mobile Network Growth Brings New Opportunities

Google founded 1998YouTube launched 2006

Apple iPhone launched 2007

Networks and devices growing in capability

and robustness

Mobile applicationsnot possible just

6 years ago !

Multi-Agency Communication Challenges

• People, Policy, Process…!• Traditional security layers can impede working• Comms interop not part of most of our training• Comms interop starting too late in the incident• Location, location, location....!

• SARCALL breaks down barriers delivering effective Tac/Ops sharing; any web platform, anywhere.

• SARCALL is the only Multi-Agency LandSARTac/Ops platform in the UK and R. of Ireland

The SARCALL Story….

• 6 years ago, NW Police centralised Control Rooms • Sudden poor quality of emergency info sent to Teams • We found:-

– 7 x MR Teams with 8 Callout methods!– Lots of dated/incorrect on paper – Everything phone / pager based with no audit trail– Teams unintentionally making Police process far more difficult– Both Police and Teams knew we must do better….

• Trial system live 12 weeks later in all North Wales Teams• Other SAR Teams and Police Forces had same issues…• Major Incidents galvanised the need to work together• Now sole platform for 95% of MR Teams in England and

Wales and 40% in Scotland!• Volunteer designed and driven reacting quickly to needs

What SARCALL Provides

• “Joins-up” Teams, Police and Agencies in SAR Ops to help obtain a common operating picture

• Simple web callout platform for Police, Ambulance and Fire to activate their SAR Teams etc

• Supports all Team callout and other messaging• Secure resource for contacts, documents, etc• Incident Logger to share tactical/ops data

(c)2015 John Hulse - SARCALLSlide 8

Authorities Using SARCALL

• In Use By Cat 1 Responders:-• Police Service of N. Ireland• Police Scotland• Cumbria Police• North West Ambulance• Yorkshire Ambulance• North Yorkshire Police• Lancashire Police• Greater Manchester Police• North Wales Police• Welsh Ambulance Service• Gloucester Fire And Rescue• Avon & Somerset Police• Devon & Cornwall Police

• In Use By Other Responders:-• RAF ARCC Kinloss• C Flight RAF Valley Helicopters• RAF Mountain Rescue Teams x 2• National Police Air Service• Great North Air Ambulance• North West Air Ambulance• Bangor Hospital - Emergency Dept

• Starting Within Next 3-6 Months:-• An Garda Siochana (R. of Ireland)• Northumbria Police • Cleveland Police• Bristow Search and Rescue

(c)2015 John Hulse - SARCALL Slide 9

SAR Teams Using SARCALL • Keswick MRT• SARA - Wyre Forest• SARA - Tewkesbury• SARA - Beachley• Rossendale-Pendle MRT• Devon Cave Rescue• Gloucester Cave Rescue• Mendip Cave Rescue• Dartmoor Rescue Group (x4)• Exmoor SAR• Cave Rescue Organisation• Cornwall SAR• Edale MRT• Teesdale-Wearside SART• Upper Wharfedale FRA• Buxton MRT• Northumbria NP MRT • North Of Tyne MRT• North West MRT• Tweed Valley MRT• Arrochar MRT• Tayside MRT

• Arran MRT• Galloway MRT• Moffat MRT• Swaledale MRT• Langdale/Ambleside MRT• Cockermouth MRT• Wasdale MRT• Kendal MRT• LDMR Search Dogs• Patterdale MRT• Penrith MRT• Kirkby-Stephen SAR• Keswick MRT• Duddon-Furness SAR• Midlands Cave Rescue• South East Cave Rescue• Scarborough & Ryedale MRT• Cleveland MRT• Mourne MRT• Dublin-Wicklow MRT• Glen of Imaal MRT• Brecon MRT

• Ogwen Valley MRT• Llanberis MRT• North East Wales SAR• Aberglaslyn SAR• Aberdyfi SAR• SARDA (Wales)• North Wales Cave Rescue• South Snowdonia SAR• Bowland-Pennine MRT• Bolton MRT• Oldham MRT• Kinder MRT• Woodhead MRT• Glossop MRT• Derbyshire CRO• Suffolk SAR• Cheshire SAR• Warwickshire SAR• Border SARU• Ochils MRT• Killin MRT• Oban MRT

(c)2015 John HulseSlide 10

Some Key Numbers….

• 86 SAR Teams using the system• 14 Cat. 1 Responders activating Teams• 1,200 authenticated users• 257,000 logins in 5 years• 5,100 callouts in 6 years• 35,100 message activations in 6 years• 3,900+ SAR Incidents recorded and managed

using the Logger• >1 Million SMS messages sent in last 2.5 years

SARCALL And Multi-Agency Operations

CalloutButtonTeam

Summary

IncidentLogger

SpecialGroups

GazetteerMap

Keywords

The Callout Message To The Team..

(c)2015 John Hulse Slide 14

• Displays incidents in footprint of SAR-H Base• Displays time of callout, CA abbreviation and link to Logger • Used by RAF SAR Force, Welsh Ambulance and the

GNAAS and NWAAS Helimeds

Called Out Team

Team Closed Log

Multi-Agency Response In North Wales

Add/ View Log

SARCALL WithIncident Logger

SARCALLWith

IncidentLogger

999 Call

JCC

PoliceAdd/View Log

RAF ARCC View Log

Team ATeam ASAR Team D

SMS Dispatch

Phone / TETRA

SMS NoticeC Flight

RAF Valley

SMS Dispatch

SAR Team A

Dispatch

Add/View Log

SMS Requests

Add/View Log

SMS Requests

PolSA

NPASAdd/ View Log

Add/ View Log

Bangor A+EDepartment

RAF ValleyMRT

AmbulanceControl

Add/View Log

Add/View Log

DEFRAFlood Tac A

Add/View Log

BristowSAR

Police, Ambulance,SAR Teams, Hospital,

Military and Civil SAR-H and “TacAds”

linked together.

Incident Logger Features

• Captures key operational flow and decisions

• Timestamp and user-stamp each log entry• Log interaction by Teams and Partners on a

“permissions” basis

• Store files, images, documents, maps etc.• Found to be critical for remote / complex ops

• Improves regional situational awareness even during routine operations, not just major incidents.

2014 - SARCALL(c)2014 John Hulse

Slide 17

RAF R122Entry

Police Callout

Hospital Entry

TeamLog Entry

TeamSMS

Creative Use Of SMS In SARCALL For SAR

• SMS coverage better than data• Team Leaders can:-

– Send messages to Team Groups– Create new Incident Log– Send update to Incident Log– Get declared availability

• Team Members can:-– Receive Team messaging– Declare availability states– Manage presence in Team lists

SARCALL And The JESIP Model

Situational Awareness -“What happened?”

Situational Awareness -

“What’s it mean?”

Situational Awareness,“What do I do next?”

Situational Awareness,“What's happening?”

Update the log and share data

Moving Towards Larger Operations….

• Successful scaling needs:-– All Partners sharing the same system

– Familiarity and trust in the system– Use the same system for every operation

– Just enough data, not too much!!– Good loggists!

• Scale seamlessly towards national level…

Incident Starting In The Region…

The incident starts and the Police

contact the Team

Incident Escalating In Size…

Cat 1

Responder

(Ambulance)

The incident needs more resources and

more Teams activated

Incident Now Regional and MR Silver Group Activated…

Cat 1

Responder

(Ambulance)

Cat 1

Responder

(ARCC)

Teams

The MR Silver is activated to link between Cat 1

Responders and Teams

Incident Now Regional and Full Multi-Agency…

Cat 1

Responder

(Ambulance)

Cat 1

Responder

(ARCC)

Teams

Full, regional incident with full

multi-agency engagement

Building The Large Incident Response Beyond The Region…

MR Region A

1. Send Message to Region B

3. Exchange Ops Info and create response plans

2. Get response from Region B

MR Region B

Multi-Regional Response…

MR Region C MR Region D

MR Region BMR Region ASharing Situational

Awareness, Resource Management etc

Exercise Cloudburst 2015

• Major T-T exercise organised in Lake District• SARCALL used for all data communications• 6 Regional MR “Silvers” linking to 34 SAR Teams• 4 Police Forces interacting in Exercise logs

• Peak of 149 users interacting in SARCALL• 10 concurrent Incident Logs running• 3,400 x SMS messages sent in 5 hours

• Great learning points and successful Exercise• … Less than 15% of server capacity used!

3 January 2014

Flood Guidance Statement Extract

Gold,Silver

B

B

Thanks to Shoothill Ltd

NW Silver Log Sample, 19:00hrs, 2 January

Police Update From SCG

SMS Alert ToNW Silver

NWF+RS Contact Info

Request to NW Silver For

Response Data

Update From RNLI Flood Team Hazard

Update File

Update From RNLI Flood Team

January’14 Flood Event Silver Comms Model

SARCALL Summary

• Only multi-agency SAR Tactical/Ops Incident platform in UK and RoI

• Enables Agencies and Teams to work together • Robust and secure messaging platform• Volunteer SAR driven and supported• Delivers:-

– Efficient use of Teams, assets and people– Array of simple local and remote access tools– Smart, parallel working with strong audit trail

• Welcome the opportunity to talk!

Thank You !

Any Questions Please ?