– How often does Lisa Alert look for children during the forest season?
– Thank God, the disappearance of children in the natural environment is a rare event, not a daily occurrence. Such searches require maximum concentration of forces - and this happens automatically: maximum search engines go to the children. The biggest danger for children is if they reach water. The number of drowned children exceeds all reasonable limits. They drown for various reasons: they were tired, thirsty, fell, swam, in principle they are not afraid of water, and so on. Fourteen out of fifteen children killed in the natural environment will be killed by water.
– While participating in the search, I came to the conclusion that the biggest parental horror - pedophile maniacs - is still very rare. Is this true?
– How to say: sometimes such events in the country happen once a week, sometimes once every two weeks, sometimes there’s a pause, and then two in a row. This is a serious and real danger. For example, last week in the Kirov region, when an 11-year-old girl died... Abductions are a rare story compared to ordinary searches, but, unfortunately, they happen, and very often end quickly and fatally for the child. We divide them into “good” and “unkind”. Kidnapping for ransom or blackmail is “good”, but kidnapping for the purpose of sexual violence is “unkind”; as a rule, the child dies in the first few hours, and often during this time even the parents do not have time to react.
– Are we somehow different from other countries in terms of the number of missing people, including children?
– Where there is no tradition of walking through the forest to pick mushrooms, fewer people disappear in the forest. And with kidnappings there is such a pattern: the better people’s lives, the richer the country, the fewer such events occur in it.
– How does pedophilia depend on GDP?
– Apparently, in the absence of suffering associated with their lives, people spend more time on their internal culture, and this gives rise to a different security system as a whole. It is obvious that there are fewer crimes related to personal violence in Canada, for example, than here. In Toronto, people don't lock their front doors, and they're often made of glass, but we have cities where they put bars on the third floor, and that says a lot.
“Found, alive!”
– You think that the most important thing for a squad is reaction speed. Are there statistics on how much the chances of success increase if you receive a search request immediately after it is received by the police or 112 service?
– If we receive an application at the same second, the chances of a person lost in the forest increase dramatically. Forest statistics look like this: if we started searching for a person missing in the natural environment on the same day, we have a 98% “found and alive” rate. On the third and fourth days, success drops to 50%.
On the first day, our search usually lasts 5 hours, after which we find a living person, and when we start the search on the third day, it lasts several days - because the lost person is already exhausted and cannot answer because he is lying down. Then we are forced to move from one search method, which requires less labor and people, to another, which uses a completely different amount of human effort.
– As far as I know, now all forest searches are immediately sent to you from the emergency number 112?
- Yes. But not everywhere: in the Moscow region - yes, but in others - no. The 112 system itself is just being deployed and will be deployed in Russia by 2018.
– Where is Lisa Alert presented?
- One way or another - in 44 regions: somewhere they are trying to organize something, and this initial stage lasts indefinitely, somewhere we have applications, but we have no one to respond, somewhere our branches are working perfectly: they are involved in the search there are a lot of people who have gone through trainings and educational events, they have all the techniques, we go to them with teachings, they come to us, and so on. We have more than 20 efficiently operating regions that reach living people on a daily basis. I would like to believe that after some time we will occupy most of the Russian Federation with detachment units, and this will give many people a chance to live.
– How many requests do the police receive every day, 112, that people are missing?
– In Moscow, during the non-forest season, that is, in autumn-winter-spring, there are about 50 reports of unknown disappearances of citizens.
– Of these, probably a significant percentage are those who went to sit with friends without telling their family, left their wife or husband, lost their phone, and so on?
- Absolutely right. 80 percent of these applications are people who will return home on their own.
– What happens during the forest season?
– On some days in the Moscow region there are up to 20 applications for people who are lost in the forest.
– Does the city “fall” during the season?
“He loses our attention, but the number of disappearances does not decrease much at this time.
– Do I understand correctly that before the emergence of “Lisa Alert” - seven, ten, fifteen years ago - these 10-20 people died every day in the forest?
– Half of them chose themselves, but the other half did not. There were no statistics - we don’t know how it was before, no one counted them, and we still don’t have open statistics on missing people. In Belarus, you can see today’s applications for missing persons on the Ministry of Internal Affairs website, but we don’t have them.
- Why?
– I don’t know, but I hope that we will overcome this. Statistics are an extremely important thing that helps to increase search techniques and reduce the use of people. Many things can be solved with technology.
What is Lisa Alert?
– Let’s now look at the formal question: “Lisa Alert” – what is it? Foundation, non-profit organization?
– This is a search and rescue team that is not legally registered anywhere. A community of people who have common goals, principles and interests. The lack of registration is our principled position: it imposes a lot of responsibilities on us, formalizes much of our existence and slows down those processes that should happen promptly for us.
– But many organizations operate quite successfully when registered?
- Absolutely right. But the main thing we must do is to respond quickly, and the organizational structure will require additional conditions for our existence: reports, accounting, and so on. For the effective work of a search team of volunteers (not professionals who receive money for this), there should not be any additional inhibitory elements. It is clear that if we had registration, we could successfully resolve financial issues (and searching for people is, of course, an expensive story: equipment, consumables, and so on), but we do not do this, because another fundamental position of the detachment is that we do not have settlement accounts and wallets.
– What if you helped someone, found someone, and the person is so happy that he wants to sincerely thank you?
- We don't take money. But if a person is ready to give us something that we use in our searches - flashlights, walkie-talkies, batteries, navigators, and so on - we will be very grateful to him. And this happens quite often. A man comes and says: you are cool guys, you are doing a good job, I am with you in spirit, but I don’t have time to participate in your search, let me give you an ATV. The equipment that the detachment has was purchased either by people who participate in search activities, or by people far from the detachment who simply want to help. For us, the absence of a money issue is independence.
– Do we still have organizations like yours that operate on such a scale without a current account or registration?
- And abroad?
– People are disappearing everywhere. Somewhere voluntary initiatives are organized, somewhere there are state ones, in some countries there are SAR teams, searching desks, which are funded by private partnerships, but the people there are in professional service. In other countries, it’s the other way around: these are exclusively volunteers, whose equipment is provided by the state. Somewhere, for example, there are volunteer fire services: the state provides them with equipment, but they are staffed by volunteers who do not receive money for it.
For example, in the USA, a huge number of fire crews in the regions are volunteers. The whole country there is built on self-organization: if we don’t want our village to burn, let’s elect people who will be responsible for it. And residents, when a call comes, take time off from their main work - for example, from a store - come to the point of the fire, change into combat clothes there, and a fire truck arrives there. Employers are well aware that trouble can come knocking on their door, so they let volunteers go unquestioningly.
In addition, they have resolved issues regarding tax benefits and other things; the state is stimulating this process. In Russia, volunteerism is still at an embryonic level. For example, in the UK, 5 million people are searching for missing people in one way or another: someone reposts, someone pastes landmarks, etc., but here we can talk about tens of thousands of sympathizers and sometimes taking part in the search.
"Lisa Alert" and the police
– What else is unique about the Lisa Alert squad?
– We have a wide range of actions: we carry out search activities in the natural environment, in the city, we search for different ages, different health and mental states, information searches that take place without leaving, and so on. All these activities require the development of methods, training, and training of search engines during the period free from searching. We had to develop all this, because when we started, it turned out that there was nothing, and something had to be done so that people had a better chance of returning home.
– What does “there is nothing” mean? Which government agency is responsible for searching for missing people?
- Police.
– So what, she doesn’t have the necessary skills to do this?
– Yes – for a large number of searches there is not enough qualifications. This is the most serious problem.
– Here, naturally, the question arises, what is your relationship with the police?
- In different ones. We try to interact at all levels; we often do not remain silent when the police are inactive, which gives rise to conflicts, but we also often work in absolute synergy. It all depends on the specific employee, on the event, on the place where it takes place - this is always a human factor.
– Is there any dynamics in relations with the police over the five years of the detachment’s existence?
– Yes, there is, it is positive, they recognize us more, they take us into account more and they argue with us more. In many regions good, strong contact has been established, but in some places problems arise from time to time. We too often see too much inaction or incorrect action on the part of certain bodies and are skeptical. However, the trend is this: we have moved the situation from a dead point, and now the government services that are responsible for this react to missing children in a completely different way than they did a few years ago.
– What has changed?
– For example, when Liza Fomkina was in the forest (a five-year-old girl who died in the forest five years ago; the story of the Lisa Alert search and rescue team, named in her honor, began with her search. - Ed.), the police were relieved of their search for her to guard the fireworks on the occasion of the city's day, and no one was looking for her. This cannot happen now.
– Tell us about any other cases of your interaction with the police.
– Yesterday in the Moscow region they were looking for two children in the natural environment. In order to obtain information about whether they had been seen in other settlements - and there are a huge number of gardening partnerships scattered around the forest - all the police in the area were called back from vacation, removed from their current work and sent to these villages and partnerships for interviews. Actually everything.
– Is this how it should be?
- That's how it should be. All possible services took part: the Ministry of Emergency Situations, firefighters, Mosoblpozhspas - a structure within the Ministry of Emergency Situations that is engaged in rescue work in the Moscow region, now we see them in almost every search, and many employees are sufficiently motivated. And this is one of the main changes over the past few years.
– What exactly influenced their motivation, do you think?
“When you carry your found grandfather out of the forest in your arms, you suddenly realize that all this was not in vain and that you are not here for a salary, but are really saving lives. Therefore, the task of the Mosoblpozhspas is to learn to operate in the natural environment, and many of their search and rescue teams already know how to do this. They improve their skills in using a navigator and compass, and master our techniques.
The most important thing is to overcome the basic prejudice: what incomprehensible civilians without ranks and titles can teach us. In fact, now in Russia, besides us, there are very few people who can competently engage in searches in the natural environment. We are ready with all our hearts and pleasure to transfer our methods for use to the structures of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, because this, of course, will save many lives.
– But this seems to be happening - in October, for example, “Lisa Alert” conducted exercises for Emergency Situations Ministry employees?
“This is happening at a completely different pace than we would like, with the wrong results, and is not always effective. When a person doesn’t want to, it is very difficult to teach him and force him to do something.
Hospital stealers
– How can modern technologies and techniques reduce people’s participation?
– For example, a significant part of the missing in the urban environment end up in the hospital, but neither we nor the police know about this and continue to look for them. A grandfather in slippers was walking down the street in winter, some respectable citizen noticed him, tried to talk, the grandfather had memory loss, and the citizen called an ambulance for him. An ambulance took him to the hospital, but he cannot identify himself. He lies without a name in the hospital, which does not report this anywhere, although it should, or reports, but not immediately, and at this time several police departments, relatives and we are looking for him.
In Moscow, in order to eliminate this problem, the Moscow government and the Lisa Alert search team created a database of unknown patients (findme.mos.ru is an important resource for those looking for a missing loved one. – Ed.), the government fully financed this project. Now, upon admission, hospitals are required to photograph every unknown patient or child without parents and post it in this database. But since there are no consequences for medical personnel for failure to perform this action, today this base does not work entirely effectively.
There is a dream to spread it throughout the country, because on the scale of Russia this is a gigantic problem: gigantic efforts of volunteers and police officers are spent searching for those people who are already in the hospital.
Another example. Often in many cities they do such a worthy thing as a surveillance system from video cameras, which is loudly called “Safe City”. And when, God forbid, a child goes missing and we go there to search, it suddenly turns out that the “Safe City” surveillance system is big words, but in fact the camera is aimed at the administration building and the city court, and this system actually does not exist. But the modern world provides such an opportunity, and covering as much space as possible with cameras implies a sharp reduction in the number of crimes.
– As far as I understand, this does not completely solve the problem, because when we were looking for a grandmother from Naro-Fominsk, who, judging by the cameras, left by train for Moscow, at the Kievsky station they refused to show me the video recordings.
– ...Although we signed an agreement on cooperation with the directorates of railway stations back in 2012, and the stations must meet halfway.
“Everyone who wanted to play it”
– I got the feeling that “Lisa Alert” rests on you: you delve into all the issues related to the development of the squad, with partner projects, while also coordinating searches and walking through the forest...
– There are functions that cannot be performed by the volunteer movement, because everyone has their own life, work, and so on. Therefore, there are very few people in the detachment dealing with administrative issues. This is a serious problem, one that cannot be overcome in an all-volunteer community. As soon as there are salaries and hours of work, there are people who have to do it, and we don’t have the word “should.” But it is necessary. And if there will always be people for the search activities for which all this is organized, then there are no people for administrative work.
– Does the detachment have enough people to cover all search needs?
– Now we are in a crisis in terms of the number of people searching. This is due to several factors. Firstly, we have the standard five-year crisis for the volunteer community - in the fifth year there is a decrease in enthusiasm: everyone who wanted to play it. Secondly, the search is a very time-consuming and resource-intensive process, and after some time those who participate in it must compensate for it with other processes: having children, going to work more actively - especially since the financial crisis in the country requires this , and so on. Therefore, people have less time, so in 2013 the average number of people on forest searches was 27, and by the end of the season, when everyone was already exhausted, it was 23. And now several people come to search.
– Do I understand correctly that compared to 2013, the number of searches has also increased, because now they know more about you?
– Absolutely right – the searches have increased significantly, and people who were interested in this to one degree or another have already come to us. And the number of publications in the press in the same 2013 and now is incomparable: there were significantly more of them, because we had time to do this between searches, but now we don’t have it, and today people are more willing to go on a search than to sit and do PR.
In addition, there is still a serious problem of regional development, and one of the important issues is the creation of some kind of simplified standardization system, so that the same methods are used in searches in both the Oryol region and Anadyr, and so that under the “Lisa Alert” flag never there was no chaos. For example, you can’t drink while searching, because this is already a high-risk enterprise, so there can’t be any altered consciousness there. Outside of searches, a person can do whatever he wants, but within detachment activities this is excluded.
– And what is the forecast for people’s participation in the search?
“We are at the bottom peak now, and the curve will go up next year, but it won’t be a meteoric rise.” We can increase the number of people if we engage more deeply with development issues. But there is no option “we won’t drag grandma out now, we’ll write something, perform or think about the concept”: search is always a priority.
– And yet, I return to my question: if a situation suddenly arises in which you, for some reason, stop participating in the life of the detachment, will it continue to exist?
– Of course – he’s not going anywhere. It will, of course, change - it is important that the basic principles do not change, because it is alive and able to work effectively in a format where it is absolutely independent.
Volunteers, useful and harmful
– There are other search and rescue teams, why has “Lisa Alert” become the most recognizable?
- We are efficient. By the way, I am in favor of not using the terms “volunteer” or “volunteer” when describing our activities, because not all volunteers are equally useful. Some people want to help but don't understand how, don't know what they'll be faced with, and end up damaging the search.
– Can’t everyone walk through the forest with a lantern?
- Everyone, but it has to make sense. This procedure can be detrimental to the walker himself, because he may get lost, and distract from the search a huge number of people who will have to look for him. We are faced with a huge number of situations - almost on a daily basis - when some volunteer structures, wanting to help in the search, for example, post up directions for a runaway child in his area. This child is relatively safe in his area: he knows where to sleep, knows where his friends live, knows the codes for the entrances, and so on. He sees landmarks towards himself, gets scared and runs away to another area where he knows nothing, and his level of security drops sharply.
– At the very first search I was on, local ATV lovers arrived, I went with them, and they said that the navigator did not work, they went the wrong way, fell into a swamp, they said that it was pointless to shout, as the coordinator told them – We had a lot of fun for a couple of hours, but in terms of results our trip was, of course, useless.
- Here you are. And we are a technique, an attempt to create an effective structure. We make sure that the search ends in success, and we know how to organize it, and we can do it. There are no other such structures in Russia.
– From what moment does a person become a member of the squad? One time he came to search, another time - is he already in the detachment?
- Today we do not have a division - a member of the detachment, not a member of the detachment. There are people who are actively involved in squad life, it is clear that they are called squad members. We will definitely carry out a division, create a mechanism that will be called “squad - movement”, when the person who reposted the orientation and the organizations that in one way or another helped the search become part of the large “Lisa Alert” movement. The rest - those who are directly involved in the search and whose activities are strictly regulated - will precisely be members of the detachment.
– The squad is an absolutely motley group. What kind of person wouldn’t fit in with Lisa Alert?
– I can tell who is quickly dying out: populism, empty statements, self-affirmation through words do not work for us, only actions work. In our country, chatter very soon begins to look like chatter.
The state is me
– What is your dream for the squad?
“I want to make a thing that will work all over Russia and will completely and completely change the situation with missing people. This organization will have enough time for both preventive actions and actions on operational search tasks. There will be a lot of people in it, and it will change the worldview of society: what previously seemed wild will become normal for everyone.
For example, during yesterday’s search, the SNT watchman still didn’t understand why we were doing this for free, and the police often don’t understand this either. I want to make sure that this does not cause misunderstanding in anyone. The number of people who help someone - cats, dogs, children for surgery - is growing, and this becomes normal, ceases to be wild. And after some time the changes will be absolutely enchanting.
- Why on earth? There is a crisis in the country, people's lives are getting worse.
– People live differently. The issue is not quality of life. Of course, when the struggle for food begins, this whole story with volunteering and charity simply dies out. But I would not want such a fate for the country in which I live. And if people don’t fight in line from 6 am with a bread coupon in their hands, then we will greatly reduce the number of people lost thanks to preventive procedures and actions that are not being done now. Half of our grandparents simply won't disappear.
We live in the 21st century, we have a huge amount of technical capabilities to solve these problems, to use them in search of those things that we do not use now, but they are already in the world. Many things will be solved much easier. And my dream is for Lisa Alert to continue to do all this and move, to change this world for the better, as it changed before, to become even bigger and stronger.
– Don’t you think that the success of volunteering in Russia is due to the fact that people simply realized that there is nothing to expect from the state and that they have to do everything with their own hands?
– Why does anyone think that the state owes something? The state is us.
“But the police must look for missing people - that’s their duty.”
– You don’t want to pay gigantic taxes so that there are a lot of people in the search department? They are forced to cut them. Pay more taxes and make sure the taxes don't go to someone's Maybach. I can’t keep track of where they are going, and I don’t care much about potholes on the roads, because I bought myself a car in which I don’t care what kind of road it is, but at the same time I can’t calmly watch my grandmother die in the forest. I can get her out of there myself. And what? What does the state have to do with it? I don’t have this understanding that “they have to.”
Our legislation is written in such a way that a search officer is obliged to find a lost person in the forest. How will he do this? One? Did anyone who wrote this think about this? So I don't see anything extraordinary about a volunteer organization taking this on.
“I hated the forest at night”
– Every day, while searching, you come across borderline situations that a person does not think about in ordinary life: life, death, hope, despair. Did this influence you in any way? Have your ideas about these categories changed?
- Basically - nothing. But there comes a time for everyone in the squad when they go through a serious experience. This happens when some search, which was important for some reason, ends in the death of a person. This happened to me too. It’s hard every time, of course, but some cases are special. For me, it was the death of Lisa, in search of whom the detachment arose, and then the death of Anna-Alena in 2011 in the Smolensk region, she was 1 year 8 months old.
Then it all smoothes out and such moral worries do not arise, and professional deformation sets in. This does not prevent you from acting effectively; moreover, I would say that emotions get in the way. In each case, naturally, serious feelings arise, but it is unlikely that anything can now cause feelings similar to those. The worst thing is when you make a mistake, and you have to somehow continue to live and work with it.
– Starting from a certain point in my participation in the search, some of my fears were leveled. For example, it became easier for me to walk alone through the city at night. Has this ever happened to you, have any of your fears become distorted?
- Yes, sure. I hated the forest at night. I still can’t stand him, but it doesn’t affect my actions in any way. And if I wouldn’t go there before, now I go there.
– Is the fact that searches are usually carried out at night due to the fact that search engines work during the day?
- Of course. It is clear that during daylight hours the search is more effective, but due to the fact that we operate at night, 60% of those found, including those killed, are found at night. A healthy person responds, but searching for a dead person is even more difficult.
– But can’t there be a situation where at night they pass by a person lying down without noticing, but during the day they would see him?
- Maybe. A one-time “combing” gives 60-65% effectiveness on a lying person. If we dress him in camouflage, his performance will drop. But, as a rule, we don’t have the strength to comb it twice. Therefore, you need to go efficiently the first time.
– You have a daughter, have your fears regarding the child changed?
– Since she is the same age as the squad, I am probably just initially a more responsible parent in moments related to the possibility of a child being kidnapped or drowned. When you see the dead of other people's children, you understand how easily this happens. Therefore, our child is in sight all the time, there are no situations when she is left to her own devices.
– Do you have a main job?
– “Lisa Alert” twenty-four to seven.
– Okay, what about food, rent and other things that require money?
“There is a small furniture business run by my wife and her sister, I left them, and am working in my own business as a consultant.
- Let's end with something good.
“The other day, three children were found alive. (Smiles). That's it.
Ksenia Knorre Dmitrieva
Search and rescue team Lisa Alert was organized in 2010 as a result of the search for a lost girl named Lisa. This is a non-profit association of people with a common goal - searching for missing people in the natural and urban environment. The organization does not accept monetary donations and operates on the principle of selfless mutual assistance. Anyone who needs it can ask for help in finding a missing person. All you have to do is leave a request by phone or on the Liza Alert website.
Public search team Lisa Alert - official website
On the main page in the header, the user will easily notice telephone numbers by which at any time of the day he can provide important information or leave a request to search for a missing person. You can distribute important messages on social networks using the buttons located under the hotline number.
Below is the main menu bar of the site. The first section, “Movement,” contains information about the detachment, the history of its creation and the basic principles of its activities. Here you can read news and view Lisa Alert's photo albums. A separate page “Volunteer LA” will help you understand whether you are ready to join this movement, find out how you can become a member of the team of volunteer search engines Lisa Alert, and fill out an application form to join the group.
Movement - Volunteer LA
The “Registration” section invites those wishing to sign up as volunteers to select the group in which they want and have the opportunity to participate. Fill out the application form and enter your phone number in the SMS newsletter.
Volunteer questionnaire
The materials section contains statistics on the results of searches. Here you can download banners for placement on various Internet resources. The "Recommendations" subsection contains reminders and articles that will tell you how to behave if you or your loved ones are lost, as well as tips to help avoid such situations.
On the Team Needs page, anyone who wants to help the search party can find out what the search party currently needs.
Squad needs
You can discuss the activities of Lisa Alert and chat on abstract topics on the Forum.
You can contact PSO Lisa Alert and its leader by phone numbers listed on the contacts page. " Leave a search request"missing information can be found by clicking on the button that appears on each page of the site.
Most of the main page of the site is occupied by news. Banners are displayed on the right, informing about current search operations.
News and current searches
Under the news you can find announcements about children found and returned home, as well as about those people who still could not be found.
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"Lisa Alert"- a search and rescue team consisting of volunteers who search for missing people. Exists since 2010. It conducts large-scale search operations involving volunteers, the media, specialists and online communities. The squad includes dog handlers and trackers, jeepers and ATV riders, aeronauts and divers.
In 2017 alone, according to Lisa Alert statistics, in 2017 the search team received 2,005 calls about missing children. With the participation of the detachment’s volunteers, 1,904 children were found alive, and 79 children were found dead.
“We cannot count how many people entered the forest and how many came out.”
Why "Lisa Alert"
On September 13, 2010, four-year-old Liza Fomkina got lost in the forest in Orekhovo-Zuevo with her aunt. During the first five days, almost no one looked for her, but then information about her disappearance hit the Internet, and volunteers joined the search.
About 500 volunteers took part in the search for the girl, combing forest debris and residential areas meter by meter. However, Lisa died of hypothermia on the ninth day after her disappearance. Her body was found on the tenth day.
This is where “Lisa Alert” began, the name is in honor of the missing girl.
- How many cannot be saved or found and what is the problem?
Last year, in Moscow and the Moscow region alone, we either did not find them at all or found more than 150 people dead. But who knows about this? At the same time, two people died from mushroom poisoning, which everyone talks about, in the most terrible year (we don’t know what this figure is for Russia).
Smart cities put their residents at risk due to light and radiation sensors
Technologies
The Leningrad region is currently being rained on, and many mushroom pickers are getting lost there every day. There was no rain in the Moscow region, it was a wonderful dry summer, there were very few mushrooms and berries in July, so it was a very low season compared to last year. But when the honey mushrooms begin, if you somehow go to the region, you will see a lot of parked cars on the side of the road. If the car is still there at night, it means that people have not left the forest. But most often these are mushroom pickers not in cars, but from a gardening partnership, those who arrived by train or bus.
“We walk with lanterns - it’s great that we don’t have torches”
- What technical solutions do you use?
When we first started, we didn’t understand what tools to use and what technology to use, so we reinvented the wheel. It looks like this: groups travel with ordinary tourist navigators and when they return to headquarters, the data from their navigators is merged onto the search map. The map is marked with squares of 500 by 500 m and allows you to see what is happening, with what quality the group worked, what areas it covered.
There is the most reliable basic device with a long history - the compass. It doesn’t even need batteries, which looks amazing for a modern person.
Now we are actively using small aircraft - helicopters - and are starting to work with drones.
We walk with lanterns - yes, it’s great that they are not torches, but the difference between them is not that significant. On the other hand, even the use of such an item as LED lights already allows half of everyone we find to be seen at night. Typically, many services stop search activities at night because it is ineffective and dangerous. And we have minimal statistics on injuries at night and maximum statistics on finding people. Simply thanks to good flashlights with low current consumption and high light output.
- Can a thermal imager be used on a helicopter or drone?
The thermal imager does not see under the treetops. It may come in handy in the field. Just not at +25°C in the sun, when the grass will glow like a person. And in order to detect a person wrapped in clothes in winter, you need a very expensive thermal imager with a cool matrix.
- Do you work additionally in the city with cameras?
Yes, in any city we try to use all the systems that are available. But there is a big problem with access and quality of recordings and with the lack of cameras. Even in Moscow, with more than 180 thousand installed devices, to fully support search activities, I would like to increase their number by three.
- How do you apply these solutions? What is the efficiency?
The helicopter is used so that a person can point at himself - if he is in touch with a phone that has not yet been turned off. Now this is done by volunteers - the Angel helicopter volunteer search and rescue team helps us.
Photo: Anton Karliner / Hi-Tech
While helicopters are a great help in searches, the effectiveness of drones is not yet very high. Out of a hundred applications, people were found three times. But drones help take photos and videos, create a real-time map to update terrain data.
We also have a well-developed initiative - a crowdsourcing project. The drone flies over a square of 500 by 500 m and takes about 600 photographs from a height of 40 m. If we look at them at the search headquarters, then we need a lot of people - after 40 minutes the eye becomes blurry, and after two hours a person becomes completely ineffective.
We empirically came to the conclusion that these should be photographs, but not videos - we skip everything on video. We created a resource on the Internet where we post cut-up photographs and people look at them. This way, volunteers can search while at home. We spotted this technology from rescuers who work in the Carpathians. They have been doing this for many years, and we have made the same resource and hope that it will be effective and useful.
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Technologies
Now we are using bypass technologies - we are looking for something that will help us search for a person on foot and with flashlights.
“Our state, under the auspices of data preservation, prohibits finding directions on the device”
- Tell us about cases when drones helped find people.
The low effectiveness of drones as a technology is due to several factors. Firstly, flight time. Secondly, the cost: if we want the special properties of the device, its cost becomes frightening. The bottom line is that finding people using drones is a huge problem.
For the first time we found a person from a drone in the Rostov region in winter. A man who walks poorly has gone into the field. It took several hours.
The second time we checked the evidence, the site was easiest to inspect from a drone. The man was discovered.
For the third time, a person could be anywhere - these are the Shatura forests. He was in touch for at least a day, but the law does not allow direction finding on a mobile phone. We launched a search campaign, which was unsuccessful. Thanks to the persistence of the search coordinator - and we searched for the man for two weeks - he was discovered from a drone. Unfortunately, they died. But the man was discovered - how the technology worked.
- How do you use direction finding, smartphone data?
In Poland and the USA, people are searched using mobile data. It’s enough to drive around the forest, find the device’s direction and pick up the person, without sending 27 people into the thicket. Our state, under the auspices of data preservation, prohibits direction finding of a device.
We have been lobbying for a long time for the ability for the 112 service to receive location data. Previously, after an accident, a person was asked which kilometer pole he had passed. Now 112 receives the location of the caller, but with a large error. If in the city it is plus or minus 400 m, then in the forest it is 2 km. Low positioning accuracy does not make it possible to use it for search.
Technically, GSM helps to determine the position of a person. The emitter at the base station is able to approximately determine how far a person is from him, and three such emitters give an approximate location. Even if there were two emitters, we could narrow the search perimeter and get some chance in the form of a sector 550 m wide and 2 km long, but now we don’t even have that.
“The device tells where a person is. We'll go and get him."
- What tools do search engines need most today?
Now, on average, 27 people participate in each search in the Moscow region, with two in one, and 80 in the second. This is catastrophically small. To comb a 500 by 500 m square on foot in an ordinary forest near Moscow, assuming that a person can lie down and not respond, we will need four to five people for eight hours with good training, in the right clothes. In this square they will leave approximately the daily calorie intake. Not every person can do this physically difficult work for eight hours. Moreover, during a standard search we have from 20 to 50 such squares. We will never comb through them, we will not have enough people.
Of the 27 people, three organize the search, the rest work in the forest. 24 people explore five squares and go home or to work tired. On the weekend they can go home, sleep and start searching again.
“We need to reduce the need for large numbers of people during searches. It’s nice to imagine this picture: the four of us arrived in a minibus and are eating hot dogs, and then the device tells us where the person is. We go and get him. Such a solution would help us a lot."
Now, despite the demand for such solutions, many people get lost, for example, near the equator - due to the lack of search technologies. Euronews once showed how a man got out of a helicopter in Belgium over a forest and the police said it was suicide. At the same time, it is impossible to find the body: “The man fell into the forest. How can I find him? And we find, but we find with our feet.
- How do they look for people in other countries? Can experience and technology be used in Russian realities?
There is a unique experience inside Lisa Alert and we are trying to explore what other countries have.
Rescue teams around the world accumulate experience and publish it in the form of manuals. But among the data that they write there, for example, there is the following parameter: a child of five years old must be searched within a radius of 1.9 km from the place of disappearance, and this indicator is the same for both England and Australia. But it’s rare in our country that a five-year-old child won’t run 5 km. In addition, parents spend an average of three hours hoping that the child is with neighbors or walking in another yard, so they do not report the loss anywhere.
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Technologies
Globally, many problems can be eliminated if people are taught to use gadgets. The Canadian mushroom picker has a button that allows you to call a helicopter. An insurance rate is payable to use the device. I can hardly imagine how we will transfer this to Russian reality, how we will issue such devices to grandmothers and young people.
In Yakutia, people freeze every year. A helicopter can pick them up, but there is no connection there. There are two solutions: either frequently and expensively fly a helicopter into the air and monitor the entire road, or rent out such devices to everyone at the entrance and to the highway and pick them up at the exit. All satellite operators have such satellite signaling devices.
Photo: Anton Karliner / Hi-Tech
Fortunately, attitudes towards human life in the metropolis are beginning to change. We see more and more people starting to go into the forest with mobile phones.
“We need a solution that allows us to find a person within a radius of at least 10 km in less than ten hours.”
If we talk about gadgets like children's watches, they were originally designed to see where the child is. How do they work in practice? And what should I use for older people?
There are many problems with their use. Not all devices show the location adequately. You need to look at which card their data is linked to. And if the child’s mother and father can figure them out, then what will the grandmother do? You need an easy-to-use, well-thought-out device, but then it won’t cost 1,500 rubles. In any case, such gadgets usually end up at home after six months.
If we talk about the elderly, 83-year-olds suffer from Alzheimer's disease in 70% of cases. They may leave home and never return. In Denmark, these people are “ringed” with bracelets, everyone knows where they are. In Spain, this bracelet does not have GPS, but it has a specific color and a QR code with all the information about the person. We need GPS bracelets that last a long time, are cute, but cannot be removed. This is a headache for the state. And what we are now discussing in the format of the Odyssey research project of the Sistema charitable foundation is much less of a fantasy. The main objective of this project is to offer a technological solution that allows you to find a person lost in a forest area without a communication source within a radius of at least 10 km in less than ten hours, in any weather and at any time of day. Let's hope that Odyssey participants will come up with effective search technologies or devices.
In Russia, there is a shortage of such gadgets for the “old people” and “children” categories of the population. What is needed is a device that is fairly simple and, on the other hand, provides location control so that a problem can be reported from it. We have not yet seen or known such an ideal device. A mobile phone often saves a person's life in a situation where he is lost, but it must always be charged.
- Tell us about cases when such devices helped find people.
We have never received an application for a child who has a child's watch on his wrist. They found an old woman with memory loss, and relatives called the detachment and reported her approximate location.
Gadgets - the history of the future.
In 2015, a person disappeared in the Moscow region, they searched for five days and found him. He was without a phone; volunteers advised his relatives to buy a phone. Last year, the same person got lost with his cell phone. They searched for seven days and found him dead.
"Odyssey" and "Life Button"
- What do you think about the “Life Button” project?
This is a great concept. But having a device connected to a call center is not enough. Russia is different, there are many different services operating in it, their competencies differ from city to city.
The service that is responsible for this device must be able to report information to the necessary authorities.
- Are mobile operator services designed to monitor children’s devices effective?
This is a very useful thing. It is important that they get the location frequently because children move very quickly. Then, running at full capacity, they will be useful.
Photo: Anton Karliner / Hi-Tech
You are an expert in Project Odyssey, a competition to create the next generation of search and rescue technologies. What results do you expect?
I expect that bright minds will take part in the competition, which will provide an opportunity to use technology differently and involve fewer people in each search. As a person who sits on the edge of the forest and organizes search events, I want everything at once.
Now it is difficult to imagine what technologies will be developed or how existing ones will be applied. But there can be many options. For example, scientists from MIPT told me: the electronic nose that Opportunity has on Mars can smell a millionth of a gram of a substance. In theory, it is much easier to smell a person in the forest. But you need to want to make this technology, want to work it out, spend an insane amount of money to launch it.
First of all, technology should not be associated with a mobile phone, because many people either have it dead or don’t have one at all. We need technology that will find a person under the treetops. The smaller it is, the cheaper, the better. It can take two KamAZ trucks, but due to the cost, we could put such equipment in every city, or it should be the size of a suitcase so that a person can fly with it to any region.
If the resulting solutions are effective and interesting to government services, then those who develop them will be able to receive adequate funding. If the technologies are tested in Russia and show their effectiveness, this will be an important achievement on a global scale, because the problem of missing people exists in any country.
The ideal mushroom picker took a compass with him and he knows how to use it. Before entering the forest, he took a linear landmark. He has a navigator and a push-button telephone with him - with a smartphone it may turn out that there was a lot of Facebook in the forest, but the map no longer opens.
- And one more personal question for me, as the father of a four-year-old girl. How to explain to a child what to do?
Soon you can go to the Lisa Alert security school. We hold them about once a month, and up to 350 children participate.
The main technology is that a child should not be afraid to tell something to his parents, or be afraid to scream. After all, everywhere and always he is forbidden to shout - in the cinema you need to sit quietly, grandma is sleeping - keep quiet. He must be able to yell, gather those who are worried around him, stand and wait.
Fortunately, most of the reports of missing children are when they went against the rules, did not wait for their parents, went home and stood waiting at the apartment until the door was opened for them.
⠀ “March 7th. Evening. ⠀ Evening application, two girls 11 years old, Podolsk. Moscow is on the eve of the Women's New Year. Headquarters at 22:30 in Mak in Podolsk in the parking lot. Inforg Maria collects travel, equipment, orientation, surveys. Interaction with the police. As a result, we have several anchor points, the girls can be in the shopping center, in a couple of other places, in the entrances and at friends’ houses. ⠀ Next are 26 tasks for which 75 people were sent, lack of equipment. We receive a tasty certificate from a concerned citizen, Inforg double-checks it, passes the certificate to the police, since the certificate can be brought to the apartment, check and that’s it - found alive). By this time it was one in the morning, there were 89 registered search participants. At 1:40 on March 8, everyone returned to headquarters, the search was completed. Thanks to all participants. I even managed to train one participant in the coordinator course.”
Grigory Sergeev, chairman of the detachment: ⠀ “The Yarovaya bill has passed its first reading, which makes it possible to determine the location of a mobile phone without trial. But only for children. ⠀ If it’s not a child who’s missing, don’t give it a chance. Why such injustice is unclear. Meanwhile, many adults with mobile phones get lost and die. I will now give the figures that are known to the LA detachment; these are the searches that we conducted and where we did not save the person. And these are not children. These are adults with a mobile phone. ⠀ I approached the president with this problem in July 2017. The dead were counted from the moment of this meeting until the end of 2018 - there were 70 of them. Seventy lives that could not have been interrupted. For the average person to understand, these are people who could be found at the click of a button. ⠀ As a last resort, if it is not possible to establish the situation through the networks, well, give us what rescuers use around the world. There are such things - virtual base stations that can be placed on the back of a rescuer, in a car, on a helicopter, on a drone. They will make it clear down to the meter the location of the missing person. All countries use them. But we don't. And people keep dying. ⠀ While the State Duma shrugs off half measures, people continue to die. It won’t even be much easier to find children under this bill. We are looking for a phone number only if the parent and the owner of the contract have agreed in writing. We are looking without any technical details. That is, the same as now. It looks like this: here is the tower and here is the azimuth. For many, this is the direction in which they are lost. In fact, this is the middle of the repeater sector, the angle of which is usually 120°. That is, tens of kilometers from the base station, the entire width of outstretched arms. Usually we already know the direction where the lost one went. Rescue requires great precision. ⠀ The correct words about accuracy must be added to the bill, extended to all ages, and written consent, which argues with other regulations, must be removed. We know what to do and how to do it at the legislative and practical level. We hope that Irina Yarovaya’s bill can be corrected. We wrote to her assistant. Looking forward to meeting you." (scroll to watch full video)
“A 12-year-old boy disappeared...”, “A girl left home and did not return, blue eyes, brown hair...”, “A man went missing...”. The pages of printed publications and Internet resources are full of such announcements about missing people. Who is doing the search? Police, the Ministry of Emergency Situations and volunteers, such as representatives of the Lisa Alert organization. Why is the search party called that and what does it do? This will be discussed below.
Who is looking for missing people?
Statistics are harsh and inexorable, and they show that in Russia, every half hour, police departments annually receive up to two hundred thousand applications from relatives searching for their missing loved ones. The vast majority of these requests are processed promptly, and people are found and returned to their families. Police officers, the Ministry of Emergency Situations, and, more recently, also volunteers of the “Lisa Alert” search team are involved in the search. The lives of the missing people depend on the coordination of the work of each team member and the efficiency of actions. Caring people make up the backbone of the Lisa Alert search team. Why is it called that?
Lisa is a girl who didn't have time to help
The history of the squad began in 2010. This summer, the boy Sasha and his mother disappeared. Volunteers went out to search, and the child was found alive and well. And in September, a girl, Liza Fomkina from Orekhovo-Zuevo, disappeared after she went into the forest with her aunt and got lost. In the case of Lisa, the search was not started immediately, and precious time was lost. Volunteers joined the search only on the fifth day after the child went missing. 300 people were looking for her, who were sincerely worried about the fate of the little unknown girl. She was found 10 days after she went missing. Unfortunately, help came too late. A 5-year-old girl survived in the forest without food or water for nine days, but did not wait for her saviors.
The volunteers who participated in the search on September 24, 2010 were shocked to the core by what happened. On the same day, they organized the Lisa Alert volunteer search party. Every participant in this movement knows why it is called that.
Alert means search
The name of the little heroic girl Lisa has become a symbol of human participation and complicity. The word “alert” translated from English means “search”.
In the United States, the Amber Alert system has been in operation since the mid-90s, thanks to which data about every missing child appears on boards in public places, on the radio, in newspapers, and appears on the Internet. In our country, unfortunately, there is no such system yet. Employees of the Lisa Alert search team are trying on their own to introduce, if not an analogue of such a system in Russia, then at least to make information about someone else’s misfortune accessible. After all, in cases where people, and especially children, disappear, every minute counts.
Who are the members of the search party?
Now you know why the squad is called “Lisa Alert”. Let's talk about its composition.
The detachment from Moscow, the first in this truly all-Russian movement, is the largest and most active. Today, divisions with different numbers of participants have been formed in forty regions of the country.
There is no single control center; each department operates independently. But there is a constant connection between them, which is carried out as a result of training new employees, sharing experience and information. The organization does not have current accounts; all activities are carried out on a voluntary basis. During search operations, volunteers are provided with the necessary equipment, communications and transportation. During long searches, participants in the rescue operation are provided with food.
Search engines do not charge money for their services. Those who want to help can enroll in the detachment, provide assistance with technical means or other feasible support. And each participant knows why the group is called “Lisa Alert”, and is afraid of not being able to reach those who are in trouble.
How does the search work?
Representatives of the detachment strive to inform people about what needs to be done if a person goes missing. The fate of lost people depends on the clear and timely actions of contacted relatives. According to statistics, when applying on the first day, 98% of those who are lost are found, on the second day - 85%, when applying on the third day, the percentage of a happy outcome drops to 60%. And later, the chances of finding a missing person alive, especially a child, are practically reduced to zero.
In the case of Lisa Fomkina, active searches began only on the fifth day, which led to a tragedy that shocked the volunteers. That's why the search party is called "Lisa Alert" - it is not only a tribute to memory, but also an eternal reminder that someone is currently waiting for help.
Interaction with government agencies
Over the years of the detachment’s existence, representatives of the search engines have established contacts with the police and the Ministry of Emergency Situations. After all, the main task of finding missing people falls on government officials. But what can one local inspector do if a person is lost in the forest? considering the scale of the search.
The Lisa Alert search team comes to the rescue. Volunteers create mobile search teams, draw up an event plan, collect information about the missing person, where and when he was last seen. Every little thing can be the key to a happy outcome.
Where does the search begin?
The search team operates a hotline. A single number valid throughout the country. For those who have lost their loved ones, but hope to find them, sometimes it becomes the only thread to salvation. The operator takes the call, but the volunteers do not begin to act without a missing person report received by the police. It is not uncommon for hooligans to call and tell a tragic story of a missing person. If there is a complaint to the police, representatives of the search team come into action, launching organized and coordinated activities, not forgetting for a minute why it is called “Lisa Alert”.
Operation Search
Each squad member is assigned his own place and role in the operation. At the main headquarters they act remotely, collecting information bit by bit, distributing it in the media, on the Internet, posting advertisements, drawing up a map of the search area.
The operational headquarters is deployed directly on the spot. In it, the coordinator determines the search and rescue plan, draws up a detailed map of the area with the definition of search squares for each group member. Here the radio operator ensures communication with each participant, so that if detected, the rest of the search participants can come to the rescue immediately. During long-term searches, the support team arranges supplies of food, water and other necessary materials so that the search continues without stopping.
Teams of volunteers trained to navigate rough terrain are working directly in the search area. Newbies are always placed next to experienced searchers. If necessary, helicopters from the aviation group will take to the skies to provide aerial reconnaissance. If the search area is far away, then groups can be transported on all-terrain vehicles. The search engines include dog handlers with dogs who help find lost people. If a tragedy occurs near a reservoir, divers from the Ministry of Emergency Situations will examine the water area. All these forces are involved depending on the complexity of the search, in order to have time to come to the rescue and not repeat the situation that happened many years ago, and to remind ourselves why “Lisa Alert” is called that.
Who can become a member of the squad?
The ranks of the Lisa Alert search team are open to everyone. Everyone can provide all possible help. Students, retirees, accountants, housewives, athletes or freelancers - everyone can become members of a volunteer squad. Anyone who has reached the age of majority can become a volunteer. Those still in school can help disseminate and search for information on the Internet, but do not actively participate in the search.
We have already explained to you why the Lisa Alert search team is called that. Volunteers are taught first aid techniques, how to work with navigators, a compass, a radio station, and the basics of cartography. So that each volunteer can provide the necessary assistance to the victim and notify other team members about the find.
Search engines keep up with the times
The Lisa Alert search team has its own hotline number, uniform throughout Russia. Each phone should have these treasured numbers stored in its memory. After all, when a person is lost, not a minute can be lost. The operator will instruct the applicant about the algorithm of actions.
Also on the official website of Lisa Alert you can find a search form, by filling out which, everyone who applies can be sure that this information will be seen in different parts of the country.
Now Lisa Alert also has a mobile application. Anyone can download it to a smartphone. This is more of an application for notifying volunteers that a person has gone missing in a specific region. It helps to quickly assemble rapid response teams.
Forewarned is forearmed
Members of the group are taking active preventive measures aimed at reducing the number of disappearances. Simple rules sometimes help save someone's life. Also, the employees of the “Lisa Alert” detachment (many people wonder why they called it that) have developed clear algorithms for how to act during search operations in the forest, on a reservoir, in the city and in other conditions.
Despite all efforts, from 15 to 30 thousand children disappear in Russia every year. Every tenth of them is forever. That's why "Lisa Alert" is called that, and the victory of these people is someone's life saved!
