Search and Rescue

Scottish police forces have responsibility through the Police (Scotland) Act to protect life and property. This includes searching for missing persons and dealing with mountain rescue incidents.

The Tayside area contains large areas of upland and mountainous terrain ranging from Rannoch Moor in the west to the Southern Cairngorms and Angus glens in the east.

There are 52 mountains of Munro status (over 3000 ft) in  area, which also includes,

• Some of the deepest and most technically challenging gorges in the UK such as Craighall, Birks of Aberfeldy, Bruar and Reekie Linn.
• Glendoll – with over 70,000 visitors per year this is a centre for walking, winter mountaineering and summer rock climbing.
• The ‘National Trust’ property at Ben Lawers, attracting significant numbers to one of the ten highest mountains in Scotland.

With the promotion of adventure tourism by both Angus, and Perth & Kinross councils, large numbers of people are attracted to the Tayside area to participate and enjoy the world class facilities. Whilst the vast majority of these do so safely, and are well prepared, there is always a risk associated with these activities, resulting in the requirement for a specialist mountain rescue response.

The Tayside Police Search and Rescue Unit works in partnership with the Tayside Mountain Rescue Team to meet this challenge, with trained police officers and civilian volunteers working as one unit during mountain rescue incidents.

Additionally these skills also allow the force to undertake police duties anywhere within the Tayside area, in any weather conditions, with officers capable with dealing with these hostile enviroments and trained in crime scene management and scene of crime examination.