Structure

The unit has 25 volunteer officers under the command of Superintendent David Tonks, the co-ordinator for mountain rescue in Tayside. He is supported by two assistant co-ordinators.

Operational command and day to day running of the unit is undertaken by the team leader, Detective Sergeant Colin MacDougall and the deputy leader, Sergeant Mike Assenti.

This is replicated in the civilian Tayside Mountain Rescue Team which has over 80% of its membership being made up of outdoor professionals or specialists in other fields such as medicine.

There are currently three bases in Tayside at Forfar police station, Perth police station and a temporary base in Coupar Angus run by TMRT. These are strategically placed in relation to callouts and dispersal of members to respond to incidents.

Additionally there are two Mountain Rescue posts at Glendoll and Aberfeldy, with the latter being accommodated within the fire station. This is an example of the good working partnership that has been established between the emergency services and civilian volunteers.

Working with the civilian team, the unit deals with about 50 incidents per year. Whilst in the past there was a trend away from mountain incidents to searching for missing persons in low ground situations, this has largely been reversed in recent years.

With the greater use and coverage of mobile communications, most callouts now involve persons phoning to say they are either lost or have had an accident and are injured in a specific location.

Additionally, the advent of adventure tourism has seen an increase in persons being injured in areas that require a high degree of technical expertise to access such as gorges.

This has required both teams to increase their level of skill and expertise in relation to technical ability and casualty care with a distinct emphasis on professionalism at all levels.

The civilian and police teams share resources and have harmonised technical and medical equipment to ensure an appropriate response which conforms to best practice.

In order to meet its requirements and respond to the diverse nature of callouts, both civilian and Police units have incorporated additional skills such as,

• Swift water rescue
• Use of off-road and all terrain vehicles
• Use of the police boat (Blue Bonnet)
• Search management
• Tracking

As affiliated teams of the Mountain Rescue Committee of Scotland (MRCofS), both teams work to best practice promoted through structured training by the MRCofS in relation to avalanche search, casualty care accreditation and technical rescue rigging.