MAPLE CITY — Lost people, ORV crashes, manhunts and helicopter hoists were all in a day’s practice at an all-day training session at the Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore, hosted by the Michigan State Police.
State police Traverse City Post, United States Coast Guard and the Department of Natural Resources practiced joint search-and-rescue exercises near Point Oneida Tuesday to strengthen partnerships, train newer officers and improve performance, MSP Traverse City Post Commander Roger Craig said.
“We do extremely well, under intense circumstances,” Craig said. “However, just because things have gone well over and over again doesn’t mean we can’t get better. And our objective today is to get better.”
State police work with the Coast Guard “a lot,” Craig said, and rely on DNR officers to respond to remote areas, making them ideal partners for training.
Forty-three participants in three teams rotated through three different scenarios that weren’t necessarily criminal in nature, but were the type of calls that tend to be dangerous for responders and/or the victim, Craig said.
The location, which required approval by the National Park Services, was ideal because of its difficult terrain, large space (to run three scenarios simultaneously) and limited cell signal, which required teams to rely on radios and dispatch for effective communication.
During the training, the Gaylord Regional Communications Center coordinated communications between officers on the ground and in the air.
The first scenario was an off-road vehicle crash in the middle of a field that involved five people with multiple injuries. When the agencies arrived at the scene and began administering first aid, it was discovered that one person could not be moved.
The Coast Guard helicopter was called in to use their hoist to safely pick up the injured person and fly them out for continued treatment.
The second scenario was a missing person with a cognitive impairment who had left his home and presented a “high risk to himself,” something the state police frequently deals with, Craig said.
In this situation, troopers and DNR officers would typically respond with K-9s to track the missing person, but many times a tracking dog isn’t available, Craig said.
To prepare for this, the scenario that was practiced Tuesday used a helicopter from the Coast Guard to help find the victim lost in the woods and guide first responders to him.
In this case, the person was found with an injury that limited responders’ ability to move him. The helicopter used “jungle penetrating equipment,” a cable with a stretcher attached, to lift the person out of the woods in a vertical position.
The last scenario was a manhunt. The responders received a call of a possible domestic violence situation only to find a dead victim at the scene and a gun-wielding suspect who had fled on foot.
MSP’s Emergency Support Team tracked the suspect with K-9s through the woods on the ground and with helicopters from the air. In this scenario, the K-9s get to practice as well, by biting the suspect once he is located.
The scenarios were designed to be challenging and chaotic because “it’s certainly chaotic in the real world,” Craig said.
The different teams all reached successful conclusions in different ways that their leadership will examine to see if any of those planned responses should be adjusted.
“That’s the beauty of the job is, as law enforcement and first responders, we have discretion. And if trained properly, we have the ability to be creative in solving our problems,” Craig said.
A leadership meeting at some point in the future will examine and process the outcomes of these training exercises, he said. Before that, though, participants will be given a survey to offer leaders some insight into their thoughts and takeaways.
Trooper Justin Rohrback and Coast Guard Lt. Bobby Mey identified the need for this scenario training and, in addition to their regular responsibilities, worked for about a month and a half to plan it.
Craig said he felt fortunate that the agencies were “committed in their craft enough to take time out of their busy days and train at a very difficult pace just to improve their skill sets so they can better serve the community.
“It’s humbling to see the effort that these people are putting out.”