CARROLL COUNTY, Tenn. — Rain didn’t stop members of Carroll County Rescue Squad, the Carroll County Fire Department, Humboldt Rescue Squad, Madison County Rescue Squad, and others from spending much of the day learning how to read the trail a missing person or fugitive leaves behind, and what that trail says about where they’re headed.
AC Felker of Scout Tracking Operations School led participants in the corn fields and woods behind Mixie Community Center on Sunday, November 1, where they ran track lines and recovery drills designed for situations when searchers lose a trail.
The two-day human tracking forensics course centered on interpreting human behavior, according to Felker.
Participants learned the thought process and decisions a person makes as they move across the landscape, along with body mechanics such as the gait cycle.
“What is their intent overall?” Felker said. “If it’s dementia patients, obviously that’s different than a non-dementia person. You’re looking for the baseline of behavior and then monitoring for the changes in it.
The students learned how to build a profile of the missing person, including their background and experience, such as military service, then watch how their behavior shifts over distance.
The goals of the people being tracked differ sharply, Felker noted.
“Criminals are going to try to evade,” he said. “Missing people are going to try to be rescued. So it’s two different paths.”
While the course was more search-and-rescue based, Felker said the school also teaches tactical tracking for law enforcement.
The aim, he said, is to bring missing people home alive and to help law enforcement with fugitive apprehension.
On Saturday, the group spent time training in the classroom as well as Veterans Park in Huntingdon.
Felker has taught in East Tennessee, Northeast Georgia and Texas in the past three weeks, and will go to Hardin County next weekend.
More information is available at scouttrackingoperations.com.