The Evidence Recovery Team (ESAR)
The Evidence Recovery Team
prsar.org/the-evidence-recovery-team.html
ESAR stands for Evidence Search and Recovery — better known as grid searching.
A grid search, or Type 3 search, is what most people picture when they imagine searching for a missing person: a long line of searchers moving across open ground at fixed intervals. Because of the manpower required, it is usually a last resort in a lost-person search.
For evidence, it is a different story. A properly run grid search offers the highest probability of detection of any ground search method, which is precisely why it is worth the people it consumes when the target is a small item rather than a person.
How a grid search works
Searchers are spaced according to the target's size, ground cover, and light conditions. Spacing that works for a body will miss a shell casing. The line moves slowly and together, under the direction of a team leader who keeps the interval, and the area covered is recorded so that coverage can be demonstrated afterward — which matters when the search itself becomes evidence.
Detection probability falls as searchers tire, as spacing drifts, and as the light changes. A grid search run for four hours is not four times as good as one run for one hour. Managing that decline is most of what running a good grid search consists of.
When to call for one
Grid searches are worth the manpower when the search area is well defined, when the target is small, and when the result needs to be documented — evidence recovery, scattered remains, and clearing an area to a demonstrable standard before an investigation moves on.
Grid searching also complements detection dog work rather than duplicating it. A canine team can cover ground far faster, and clear areas a grid line would take days to walk; a grid line finds the physical item the dog was never trained on. On occasion, a grid search has recovered remains from ground previously cleared by canine — which is a real limitation of scent work, honestly stated on our Cadaver Dogs page.
Requesting the team
Call 941-548-7560 or contact us by email at [email protected]
