If you are a law enforcement or official government agency, you should call our 24 hour Emergency Pager Contact number.
512-307-8467
It is important that you leave your phone number with area code.
Note: Travis County Search and Rescue (TCSAR) can not respond to civilian requests for missing persons missions. If you are not a law enforcement or official government agency, you must contact your local law enforcement or call 911 to report all missing persons. TCSAR will respond to your local law enforcements official request.
What to expect:
- When you call our 24-hour Emergency pager, you may expect a return phone call from the Chief of Operations, Search Manager or Dispatcher within 15 minutes.
- To get TCSAR up to speed quickly on the Missing Person request, you may be asked for information such as: (NOTE: this information is not required to initiate a search response from us)
o Who is your primary contact person and what is their call back number
o Who is your agency dispatch contact person and what is their call back number
o Location where victim was last seen and location for rendezvous with agency contact
o Brief missing person profile (age, gender, race, clothing, lost since when, status of medical or mental condition, known habits)
o Please be able to detail if the search area will be considered a high risk environment for responding units.
o Will Law Enforcement be able to provide detailed maps of the last known position of the victim and of the search area?
Where we Serve:
TCSAR serves primarily the Central Texas community but will respond to any requests from Law Enforcement or government agencies in the state of Texas. TCSAR has also assisted in natural disasters outside of the state of Texas most recently in Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina.
Assets and Benefits that TCSAR offers:
o Search Management
o Ground Teams: urban and wilderness search with individuals trained in man tracking, wilderness navigation, Crime Scene preservation, and wilderness first aid.
o K9 Teams: Live/Air Scenting, Cadaver/Human Remains Detection (on land and water).
o Medical Team: Paramedics and EMT-B, I, P
o Communications: VHF and UHF Statewide interoperability radio systems imploying handheld units and command post base station, portable VHF repeaters for enhanced coverage in difficult areas.
o Coming in 2010: Spec Ops team specializing in High and Low-Angle Technical Rescue; and a live tracking map display system of active search teams.
• Benefits:
o Since Travis County Search and Rescue is 100% volunteer-based, these assets come at no cost to law enforcement or official government agencies. We pay for our own travel, gear, medical and dog care and supplies.
o Faster Rescues and Minimization of Resources
► One trained Search Dog and Handle are capable of searching the same area as 60 ground searchers AND can do it in 1/3 of the time.
► A Search example:
· Locate a missing person in an 80 acre area. For perspective, 80 acres is approximately equivalent to 57 football fields.
· A Ground Team only search would require 60 people 12 hours to clear that area. That’s 720 man hours.
· A 2-person K9 team with dog can clear that same area in 4 hours. That’s only 8 man hours and a search area cleared 8 hours quicker than a ground search team only.
• Travis County Search and Rescue is a team of highly motivated and trained individuals and dogs. The team trains to standards as outlined by the National Association of Search and Rescue (NASAR), NFPA (rope/spec ops), and K9’s certified by 3rd party agencies to nationally recognized standards.
Agencies we’ve Served:
• Austin Police Department
• Austin Travis County EMS
• Bandera County Sheriff’s Office
• Bastrop County Sheriff’s Office
• Bastrop State Park (TPWD)
• Bexar County Sheriff’s Office
• Burnet County Sheriff’s Office
• Fayette County Sheriff’s Office
• Galveston County Law Enforcement
• Gillespie County Sheriff’s Office
• Gonzales County Sheriff’s Office
• Guadalupe County Sheriff’s Office
• Hays County Sheriff’s Office
• Hill County Sheriff’s Office
• Johnson County Sheriff’s Office
• Kerr County Sheriff’s Office
• Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA)
• Milam County Sheriff’s Office
• San Antonio Police Department
• St. Tammeny Parrish (LA) Law Enforcement
• Temple Police Department
• Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD)
• Travis County Sheriff’s Office
• Williamson County Sheriff’s Office