Tracking and Clue Awareness

Become the searcher who finds the clue that solves the mission.

Most responders are taught to look around. This course teaches you to see what others miss.

Tracking and Clue Awareness Fundamentals is a mission-tested course for anyone involved in lost-person search operations. You learn how to locate, evaluate, and follow clues such as footprints, disturbed vegetation, discarded items, or partial tracks. You will discover how to measure stride, determine direction of travel, maintain clue integrity, and convert raw observations into actionable intelligence.

This course covers:

• Tracking basics and clue awareness

• Initial information gathering and lost person profiling

• Types of clues and how to evaluate them

• Footprint identification and measurement

• Stride measurement and direction of travel

• Sign cutting, track traps, lighting, and hard surface tracking

• How to avoid misleading or contaminated clues

• Applied tracking exercises to build real skill

This is not theory. You will practice real tracking techniques and learn repeatable methods that improve field performance.

Outcome: You finish the course able to locate relevant clues faster, preserve them, and communicate them clearly to command.

NOTE:  This course has two course prerequisites:

1. Conducting Field Interviews
2. Crime Scene & Evidence Preservation for Responders

This course is perfect for:

• SAR responders

• K9 handlers

• Law enforcement and rural patrol

• Emergency management volunteers

• Anyone who may need to locate lost or missing people

Become clue aware. Increase your effectiveness. Speed up rescues.