Surrey Search and Rescue (SurSAR) is a lowland

search and rescue Search and rescue (SAR) is the search for and provision of aid to people who are in distress or imminent danger. The general field of search and rescue includes many specialty sub-fields, typically determined by the type of terrain the search ...

team based in

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

, who respond for missing person search, water rescue, drone imaging and other taskings at the request of

Surrey Police Surrey Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing the county of Surrey in South East England. The force is currently led by Chief Constable Gavin Stephens. Previously the force was led by Nick Ephgrave who left the force ...

and

Surrey Fire and Rescue Service The Surrey Fire and Rescue Service is the statutory fire and rescue service for the County of Surrey, England, with 25 fire stations. It comes under the administrative and legislative control of Surrey County Council, acting as the Fire Author ...

, as well as other statutory and government agencies. In common with most UKSAR teams, SurSAR's members are volunteers. The team has been a

registered charity A charitable organization or charity is an organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being (e.g. educational, religious or other activities serving the public interest or common good). The legal definition of a ch ...

in England and Wales since October 2011.

History

The organisation was founded in 2010 by Tim Rowsell. During the first six months of 2011, the unit started to take shape and quickly acquired provisional status to join the

Association of Lowland Search And Rescue Association may refer to: *Club (organization), an association of two or more people united by a common interest or goal *Trade association, an organization founded and funded by businesses that operate in a specific industry *Voluntary associatio ...

(ALSAR). During this time the unit was involved in eight searches including the search for missing

Sian O'Callaghan Sian or Siyan may refer to: __NOTOC__ People *Siân, a Welsh girl's name; list of people with this name Places *Sian, Iran (disambiguation), various places in Iran *Sian, Russia, a rural locality in Amur Oblast, Russia *Xi'an, China, formerly roman ...

from Swindon. In September 2011, a further search dog qualified at the National Assessments, and the unit had now assisted in over 50 searches across the country. Later that year, the unit acquired another 12 search technicians and a dog to bring the unit up to 38 volunteers. By the end of 2011 the unit had responded to 69 callouts. On Sunday 8 January 2012, SurSAR were granted full membership of Lowland Rescue. In 2014 the team provided support to Op FRANKLIN, the response to flooding in Surrey and surrounding areas, and were subsequently invited to 10 Downing Street in recognition of the work undertaken in support of the local community. SurSAR have added further capabilities, including Swift Water Rescue Technicians (SRT's), Remotely Piloted Air Systems (drone pilots) and Lowland Rescue First Responders (medics), all trained to national and accredited standards. In October 2016, the team was awarded the

Queen's Award for Voluntary Service The Queen's Award for Voluntary Service, also known as The Queen's Golden Jubilee Award for Voluntary Service by Groups in the Community and The Queen's Diamond Jubilee Volunteering Award is an annual award given to groups in the voluntary sect ...

. In 2017, SurSAR responded to 98 callouts, an increase of 29 from 2011. In 2018, SurSAR was the busiest Lowland Rescue team in Great Britain. In 2019, the partnership between SurSAR and

was bolstered when selected team members were trained in response driving and were subsequently able to respond to emergencies tasked by the JECC under Fire Service exemptions, enabling safe and rapid response to life-threatening incidents.

Fundraising

Due to the unit's

voluntary Voluntary may refer to: * Voluntary (music) * Voluntary or volunteer, person participating via volunteering/volunteerism * Voluntary muscle contraction See also * Voluntary action * Voluntariness, in law and philosophy * Voluntaryism Volunt ...

status, the unit relies entirely on donations from the public and local businesses. In its first year, SurSAR also received £8,657 from the

National Lottery Community Fund The National Lottery Community Fund, legally named the Big Lottery Fund, is a non-departmental public body responsible for distributing funds raised by the National Lottery for "good causes". Since 2004 it has awarded over £9 billion to ...

. SurSAR became a

on 19 October 2011.

Callouts

Surrey Search and Rescue can be called out by

, the

Metropolitan Police Service The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), formerly and still commonly known as the Metropolitan Police (and informally as the Met Police, the Met, Scotland Yard, or the Yard), is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement and ...

, Local Resilience Forum partners or by other SAR units. The table below shows the callouts (and standbys) that the unit have answered each year (current year to date (correct at updating)).

References

External links

*{{Official website, http://www.sursar.org.uk Volunteer search and rescue in the United Kingdom Non-profit organisations based in the United Kingdom Organisations based in Surrey