Currently, there are bills in the NYS Senate and Assembly whose passage will assist SAR teams in providing better
response to SAR incidents in NYS by including NYS SAR teams in mutual aid laws, and the recognition of SAR teams as
legitimate "Special Rescue" teams within the NYS Municipal Laws. The legislation also recognizes the NYS DEC as the State Agency that will be the certifying agency for Inland/Wilderness SAR resources in New York State. When the bills were introduced several years ago, the option of having the DEC as the "umbrella" state agency for Wilderness/Inland SAR resources was not an option.
Bill A08750(Christensen,Jaffee, Fields, Lupardo, Ortiz, Castro, Espaillat) has been amended with verbage that now removes membership in the Federation as a qualification and
makes the primary criteria for qualifying a team as the training and certifications they obtain.
1. "SEARCH AND RESCUE TEAM" MEANS ONLY A VOLUNTARY OR MUNICIPAL WILDERNESS/INLAND SEARCH AND RESCUE TEAM
WHOSE MEMBERS SHALL HAVE OBTAINED THE MINIMUM LEVEL OF TRAINING OR EXPERIENCE TO MEET QUALIFYING STANDARDS
ESTABLISHED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION'S OFFICE OF PUBLIC PROTECTION; INCORPORATED UNDER
THE LAWS OF NEW YORK STATE; FORMED FOR THE PURPOSE OF LOCATING AND RESCUING, OR RECOVERING, A KNOWN INDIVIDUAL
OR KNOWN INDIVIDUALS, IN AN UNKNOWN LOCATION, WHOSE SAFETY MAY BE THREATENED BY CONDITIONS RELATED TO THE ENVIRONMENT
OR OTHER FACTORS; AND WHICH IS OPERATING NOT FOR PECUNIARY PROFIT OR FINANCIAL GAIN.
This lanquage is much more consistent with the phrasing used to identify the members of other types of rescue teams in NYS.
The big advantage to law enforcement agencies, the NYS Forest Rangers, and other Emergency Services organizations that
utilize the services of SAR teams will be that there is now state oversight on the training and certification that SAR team members must have. This bill will ensure that teams and team members meet specific New York State criteria for SAR resource designations.
Bill A08537 (Christensen, Jordan, Reilly, Gunther, Spano, Espaillat, Castro) authorized the NYS Forest Ranger force to establish a training program for volunteer search and rescue personnel to assist the forest rangers and other agencies. Senate Bill S03652 is the companion bill to this.
To move these bills out of committee and on to the floor for passage,
YOU need to start a local campaign to make your
representatives aware of these bills and the importance of passing them. You, your team, your relatives, friends, neighbors, co-workers,
and agencies or organizations that you work with, need to contact by phone, e-mail, or mail your elected
representatives and gain their support for these bills. To that end, you may download the letter listed down further that can be customized to
send to your Legislators asking for their support.
Make sure that you change the letter to
include the appropriate sending and recipient addresses. Letters coming from organizations should be on letterhead. Finished letters can
be e-mailed or mailed via the Postal Service.
Follow up the mailing with a call to you representatives. Attempt to get a few minutes of their time to speak with them
regarding these bills and their importance. You should be prepared to state our case in 10 minutes or less.
The accompanying NYS Federation of SAR 2009 Executive Summary is an excellent reference for this meeting.
Major points:
SAR teams have been operating in NYS since 1971
Statistics show that the earlier in a lost/missing person incident that professional SAR resources are utilized,
the better the outcome.
SAR teams are not being utilized enough and early enough.
SAR teams provide low cost professional SAR resources that increase the effectiveness and safety of SAR incidents while
keeping costs down and allowing Law Enforcement personnel to continue to handle their primary duties.
Download the Representative form letter
Download LegislativeSupportLetter.doc
Download the NYSFEDSAR 2009 Executive Summary
Download 2009ExecutiveSummary.doc
Download a list of NYS Senate e-mail addresses
Download 4-2005SenateE-mail.doc
Download a list of NYS Assembly e-mail addresses
Download 4-2005AssemblyE-mail.doc
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