The Tama County Sheriff’s Office has been working on a plan to be employed in the event of a child abduction should one ever take place here. This plan was started after evaluating other recent abductions that have taken place, the problems faced by those officers, and the lessons learned about managing such an event and investigation. One major problem faced by investigators is the large amount of “volunteers” that show up at such scenes and just want to help out in some way. This has increased with the extreme media coverage of these types of incidents. Investigators have found through experience that these volunteers must be managed in some way, or they will start wandering around doing their own searching. Investigators have also found that trying to manage all the volunteers, tends to tie up investigators who should be working on the actual investigation. A team of volunteers who are already background checked and have become accustomed to how to properly search an area is ideal. This team can be used to search large areas for persons or even possibly evidence and can deploy much faster than law enforcement officers coming from all over the state. This team can also assume a management role over “walk on” volunteers who just showed up to help. They can document whom those persons are (in case they later become witnesses), assess those persons physical ability to search, and then give the results to one investigator. This would streamline the management of the volunteers, free up officers to do investigation, and assure that those volunteers who do go afield are properly identified and reasonably physically capable of being in the environment to be searched. While this team’s origins are from a child abduction plan, they would be subject to call out for any missing or endangered person, such as an Alzheimer’s patient who has wandered off. If you are interested in being on such a team as a volunteer, please submit your name, phone number, and email address if one is available to brhoads@so.tamacounty.org or call Bruce Rhoads at 641 484 3760. If you have a criminal background involving sex offenses you will not be considered. The Sheriff’s Office reserves the right to disqualify anyone who applies without explanation. Some of the requirements: •Persons volunteering for this team must be physically capable of walking through a field or timber, will be background checked for sex offenses or crimes against children, must be able to pay attention to detail and stay vigilant to the search task at hand, without being distracted by cell phones, etc. Volunteers may be working in all types of weather conditions. This would be afoot only, no horseback search groups will be established. •Search volunteers may have an occasional drill as time permits, in which “evidence” is hidden in a field or woods and they are tasked to find it. This will not consume a lot of a volunteers time, and will likely not be mandatory to attend. It will be only to establish an understanding of “grid searching” and to prepare for an event. Groups We would like to also compile a list of interested Church groups, Community groups, or other volunteer groups that can be maintained for an on call basis if there is a major event in Tama County. This list would be kept on file in case large groups of searchers or officers during a long term situation such as the aftermath of a tornado, and extended search for a missing child, or comparable event would need large amounts of food, water, or other necessities. Such groups would be called upon during such an event so that officers or volunteer searchers do not have to take time away from the task at hand to serve the basic needs of a large group.