Mission Manager Improves Efficiency for Search One Rescue Team’s K9 Missions

Founded in 1983, non-profit volunteer organization Search One Rescue Team has grown into a nationally recognized leader in the search and rescue community. Serving the Dallas / Fort Worth area, the organization has 36 team members and has served more than 120 agencies. With the assistance of a team of canines, Search One helps government agencies locate lost or missing persons in a mostly urban setting. This includes missing children, elderly walk-a-ways, suicidal persons, human remains, disaster victims and more.

Mission Manager is a trusted member of the Search One team, providing its first responders with a fully-integrated and secure, cloud-based solution to manage personnel, assets and mission-specific activities. Built from real experiences and field-proven insights, Mission Manager provides a turnkey web-based solution for mission planning and training along with real-time situational data analysis, robust mapping, and multiple team communication channels for seamless operations.

Main Challenge and Solution 

Before deploying Mission Manager three years ago, Search One used disparate tools to keep track of personnel, training and missions, according to Jess Romero, Director of Search Managers for Search One.  “Before, we used mostly pen and paper – but we also integrated different tools like Google Earth and handheld GPS to track daily activities and missions,” he said. This led to inefficiencies and contributed to miscommunications that slowed the group’s search and rescue response when emergencies happened. “Now, with Mission Manager, everything is all in one place,” added Romero, “and Search One is able to hit the ground running.”

  “I love working with law enforcement and government agencies to give back to the community. Mission Manager helps us be more effective and efficient in providing this service.”

– Jess Romero, Director of Search Managers, Search One Rescue Team 

A Daily Team Management Tool

Search One relies heavily on Mission Manager’s team member and asset management capabilities, combined with its calendar and communication functions, to enhance daily activities. “We rely on Mission Manager for daily scheduling. When we create trainings, events and meetings in the Mission Manager calendar, it automatically informs our members so we don’t have to do it each time. It’s a big time saver,” says Romero.

 “Mission Manager is great for any agency that has to manage multiple assets. When we discovered this, we realized that this is exactly what we need.”

– Romero

Real-Time Tracking Capabilities

On average, Search One has approximately three “boots-on-the-ground” missions a month with 12 to 15 team members responding to calls. That’s why they appreciate Mission Manager’s real-time tracking capability. Romero says it makes the job of a search manager so much easier. Mission Manager allows teams to track their progress in the field in real-time. “That was the first feature that we took advantage of,” he said.

One of Romero’s priorities is keeping public safety agencies informed during Search One’s missions. “During one of our last searches, I presented the status of our canine units to base command. I asked to borrow their laptop and logged onto Mission Manager. Right then and there, the agency could see in real-time what our canines were doing. They could see areas that we were covering, and I could explain why we were covering those areas. It’s very impactful,” said Romero.

Easy to Use

Search One appreciates Mission Manager’s user-friendly interface. Romero is the main administrator in charge of training the team on the system. Although some of Search One’s members weren’t as familiar with the technology at first, “It’s very intuitive,” he says.

According to Romero, Mission Manager also provides great customer service. “I’ll post a question to the forum and get a response right away. I request features and they suddenly appear. Mission Manager provides quick turnaround response.”

Mission Critical

Over the past three years, agencies in all 50 states and nearly every continent have joined the Search One Rescue Team in adopting Mission Manager. It has supported more than 5,000 missions, ranging from single-person rescues to large public events and full-scale natural disaster response. Romero says it’s a big part of enabling them to serve the community. “Mission Manager is absolutely critical to our organization,” he said.