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Joint Police Working

We have established an excellent working relationship with colleagues from the Police. We both recognise that rescues, evidence preservation, secondary devices, unstable structures and the associated different priorities could all exist at a structural collapse incident.

To help develop better joint operations at such an incident the Police have established a team of 20 officers who we have trained to work safely in a collapsed structure.

The Police have trained our USAR team in evidence preservation, IED and explosives identification, body and body part recovery techniques and forensic issues.

This has made each group more aware of the other's issues and should mean both teams can work at an incident dealing with both priorities at the same time. It even allows us to help with the Police requirements and means the Police team can assist us in our role if necessary. This has been exercised several times now and has proved highly successful. We have also worked together at several minor incidents and again the benefits of improved joint working have been obvious.