HUMAN REMAINS DETECTION FIELD SKILLS ASSESSMENT
/HUMAN REMAINS DETECTION FIELD SKILLS ASSESSMENT
The following assessment rules have been adopted by Mountain Canine Corps and are designed to determine the proficiency of the working dog team for mission readiness for searches for human remains that are associated with wilderness missions. This assessment does not qualify a dog team for known criminal cases; in order to qualify for known criminal cases, the team must pass a national certification that has been approved by the board and training director, and proof of certification must be presented. National certifications that are currently accepted are NAPWDA, NASAR, and NNCDS. Other national certifications will be considered by the board and training director as requested. The Mountain Canine assessment must be repeated every two years, with a three-month grace period, assuming the team does not hold a current approved national certification. If the team is not re-certified within the three-month grace period, it will not be permitted to respond to searches. If the dog team has a current approved national certification, this team assessment requirement will be waived until the national certification is expired or renewed. To be eligible to attempt the Mountain Canine Corps cadaver evaluation, the handler and dog must be in good standing with Mountain Canine Corps and must have been training with Mountain Canine Corps for a minimum of six months. Furthermore, the dog/handler team must have attended at least eight of the last twelve scheduled team practices before the scheduled assessment. Finally, within a week prior to the evaluation, the handler must present up-to-date training records from the previous six months to the evaluator, training director and vice president for review. If the handler does not meet these requirements, the assessment will be cancelled.
The Mountain Canine Corps human remains detection field skills assessment (FSA) is designed to demonstrate the team’s ability to search a designated wilderness area for human remains. The assessment is designed to demonstrate several components. In order to access the dog’s search stamina, the dog must be able to search a five-acre area for human remains. The dog needs to search the area independently, but still be responsive to the handler. The dog must demonstrate that it recognizes odor and is committed to it by indicating with a predetermined trained final response without prompting from the handler. The handler must be able to effectively direct the dog to cover the area based on the conditions of the area and weather conditions. The dog/handler team will also be required to pass a one-time obedience evaluation. This can be done at a practice prior to the date of the actual FSA. The obedience assessment should contain the following components: recall, heel off leash, and two-minute down stay. This will be conducted by the training director.
The assessment will be evaluated by a member of Mountain Canine Corps who has previously passed at least one human remains detection field skills assessment or one of the approved national certifications. The vice president will designate the search area and organize the evaluators, although the vice president does not need to be present for the actual evaluation. A second experienced human remains detection handler, preferably a member of Mountain Canine Corps, will be responsible for hiding the material. This person is herein referred to as the source manager. Neither the handler nor the evaluator will know where the human remains are hidden. The source manager will remain outside the search area during the evaluation. Before the assessment begins, the handler will state what the dog’s trained final response is. When the dog finds a source, the handler will call out that a find has been made, and mark the location of the indication with a GPS or equivalent as well as flagging tape. Here the handler must be reliant on the dog’s indication, and cannot deliberately search for the source in order to visually confirm that the dog is correct; the evaluator will fail the dog team if this occurs. The evaluator will confirm that the dog has performed its stated trained final response. At this point, the source manager will be contacted by radio and will proceed to the marked location and confirm the find. The test can be extended by the time it takes for the source manager to enter and exit the field as needed. A marked location is considered to be correct if it is within approximately six feet of the actual source. Based on wind conditions, terrain, and odor strength, If the marked location is reasonably close to but not within six feet of the actual source, the source manager can ask for a pinpoint. If one or more of the locations is incorrect, the dog team will fail the assessment.
The area to be searched will be five acres, and the dog/handler team will have a maximum of one and one half hours to complete the search. The assessment should be conducted when the temperature is above freezing but below ninety degrees. The material must have been placed in the area twelve to twenty-four hours in advance of the assessment. Freezing temperatures while the sources are in place overnight are acceptable, as long as it is above freezing when the assessment is run. Note that based on predicted temperature conditions, the assessment can be run later in the day as needed. Preferably there will be natural distractors such as animal bones or feces in the area, but they will not be deliberately placed.
The material will be similar to the sources that the team had been using in training. This would include wet human bone and soft tissues, as well as fabric contaminated with human bone and soft tissues. Dry bones will not be used. Generally, the sources will be contained in standard Mason type jars or TADD type jars and the jars may be placed in cages to avoid disturbance. The lids should allow generous air exposure. The sources must be handled with appropriate PPE (clean latex or nitrile gloves) to avoid contamination with live human scent. The source material shall be concealed so that it is not readily assessible by animals and cannot be readily detected visually by either the dog or the handler. It will not be buried, although it could be tucked under a rock or log to protect it. In the five-acre area, there will be two sources placed, and they must be well separated. On the day of the assessment, no one should enter deliberately enter the search area prior to the dog/handler/evaluator group. That is, there should be no live human scent in the search area. Obviously, there might be hikers or animals passing through the area, but that can’t be helped, and will not negate the assessment.
There will be two sources in the five-acre area, and a source may be either surface or elevated, such that it is unknown if a source will be surface or elevated. If a source is elevated, it needs to be no more than approximately six feet above the ground. In order to pass the assessment, both sources must be found. The dog will perform its trained final response at each source, and the handler must recognize and call it. If the handler calls an indication at a distraction, the team will fail the evaluation. If by chance the dog only finds one source, and it is determined afterwards that the second source has been removed from the area by another animal, as long as the one source has been correctly identified as outlined above, the team will still pass the assessment. If both sources have been removed, which is highly unlikely, the evaluation will need to be repeated at a later date.