Typing of human resources in SAR is based upon the building and deployment of crews and teams for specific tasks. Because of the wide variety of tasks which are performed during SAR incidents, three common types of resources are acknowledged: search; rescue; and untrained resources.

The nature of typical search and rescue incidents in local jurisdictions and the financial resources of the local jurisdiction will dictate which types and kinds of resources will be maintained by the jurisdictions. Not all types or kinds of resources are expected to be available in all jurisdictions.

Kind classifications of human resources are based upon the specific environments in which SAR crews are asked to work. Specialties, of which there are many, within each of the kind classifications are not acknowledged by this classification. It is up to the jurisdiction ordering resources to ascertain whether additional subcategories of kind classifications are appropriate for the task at hand. These categories might include special capabilities for weather or terrain extremes, or for any other unusual circumstances or requirements.

SAR crews may be classified as more than one kind but not as more than one type.

1.1 This classification is intended to aid search and rescue (SAR) managers in ordering resources for search and rescue incidents and to aid in communicating the types of tasks for which search and rescue crews have been trained.

1.2 This classification is intended as a supplement to the resource typing specifications of the Incident Command System and specifically as a means of typing human resources used in search and rescue activities.

1.3 This classification is suitable for classfying search and rescue crews for a wide variety of emergency management purposes.

1.4 This classification does not attempt to classify individuals or put forth standards of performance or training for individuals, nor is it meant to convey certification, skill proficiency or other measures of the level of performance of the resource. These qualifications are the responsibility of the local agencies responsible for utilizing the resource.