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Madera County Sheriff’s Search & Rescue (SAR) Team operates under the direction and supervision of the Madera County Sheriff’s Department. The organization is open to motivated volunteers.
MADERA Search & Rescue not only plays a critical role in emergency call-outs in Madera County, but the nationally certified unit also provides mutual aid in a number of counties throughout the state and country.
All members must complete extensive training in the following areas: survival skills, tracking, land navigation, map & compass, ropes/knots, first aid and CPR and many others. All members must pass written and field-testing in order to meet national standards established by the National Association for Search and Rescue (NASAR).
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Operation Lost & Found
Tracking System designed to find Alzheimer’s patients who wander off.
- Do you have a loved one who wanders or gets lost due to Alzheimer’s disease?
- “OPERATION LOST & FOUND” provides a unique combination of Monitoring AND Locating capabilities, available to Madera County residents.
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The Madera County Search & Rescue Team uses state of the art technology in assisting those who care for victims of Alzheimer’s and other related diseases.
“OPERATION LOST & FOUND” is 100% volunteer staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
In Madera County alone it is estimated that as many as 1,360 could be or soon will be inflicted with the disease. If you have a loved one or know of someone diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, call the Madera County Sheriff’s Department to learn more about Operation Lost & Found and how the program can help you.
A member of the Sheriff’s Department will visit your home and will install a bracelet with a personalized transmitter.
A family member or caregiver will be required to complete personal data about the client along with a recent photo that will be filed with the Sheriff’s department.
If the client cannot afford the cost of service the bracelets and monthly maintenance may be donated by the program. Should the client no longer need the bracelet, the Sheriff’s Department asks that the bracelet be returned to the program so that another client in need can join Operation Lost & Found.
How Operation Lost & Found Works
- Every Client receives a personalized transmitter wristband.
- The wristband emits a tracking signal every second, 24 hours a day, and 7 days a week.
- If a Client should turn up missing, the Sheriff’s Search & Rescue Team responds to the wanderer’s area and begins searching using the mobile locater tracking system.
- Locating clients can be done simultaneously by ground and air.
- Ground searches can pick up a signal up to a mile. Aerial searches can pickup signals from 5 miles away.
- Each bracelet has a unique radio frequency that belongs exclusively to the individual client.
- Volunteers with the Madera County Search & Rescue Team make monthly visits to the client’s home to inspect bracelets and install new batteries and talk with clients, family members and caregivers.
Madera County Search & Rescue is actively recruiting new members. Volunteers take part in mandatory monthly training missions in order to maintain the required skills as well developing new ones.
 
To save a life would you: Hike into forbidden wilderness; ascend a mountain peak; crawl into an abandoned mineshaft; trudge through hot sand; or plunge into racing white water rapids?
Volunteers with the Madera County Sheriff's Department Search and Rescue team do all that and more in their struggle to provide life-saving services to those in need. Searches can be as grueling as they are time consuming. Sheriff’s volunteers come from all walks of life, but have one thing in common...compassion for their fellow man.
The following SAR Teams are utilized by the Madera County Sheriff’s Department: Dive Team, Technical Team, Foot Searchers, Posse, 4x4 Team, Canine and Overhead Team. Many members of Madera County Sheriff’s Search & Rescue Team are cross-trained, able to assist when and where they are needed.
"Basic Essentials" you should carry when exploring Madera County’s vast wilderness:
- Map and Compass
- Extra Water
- Extra Clothing
- Extra Food
- Flashlight (with extra bulb & batteries)
- Matches or Lighter & Fire starter
- Knife
- First Aid Supplies, Sun protection, Insect Repellent
- Plastic Trowel & Toilet Paper
- Whistle
- Communication devices: Two-way radios, cell phones with fully charged batteries, satellite telephones ... It’s important to know that in mountainous and remote areas range of coverage may be limited and in some cases NOT work at all. The same holds true for ham radios.
  
When you go out, even for a day hike, it is critical that you tell someone exactly where you are going, when you will return, and also leave a note in your car.
It may help us save your life!
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