Lowland Rescue

What We Do

Sussex is home to approximately 1.4 million people in an area of nearly 1 million acres (3700 sq km). The local police services are tasked to find, care for and return to a place of safety anyone who is reported missing who is identified as vulnerable or at risk.

We support Sussex Police in fulfilling this obligation by providing emergency on-call nationally qualified search dog teams throughout Sussex and the UK to support the emergency services when looking for vulnerable missing people. We do this 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. We are part of Lowland Rescue service.

UK Search & Rescue (SAR) Framework

Who We Search For

We are deployed at the sole request of Sussex Police. We cannot deploy on request by any private individuals. If you or a loved one is lost you must contact your local police force directly.

The missing people we are requested to search for often either don’t know they are lost or don’t want to be found. There are a number of reasons why adults and children go missing. It can also be more than one reason per case.

Search Dogs Sussex are called out by Sussex Police, and neighbouring counties on average between 30 and 40 times per year. We search for missing children and adults. Not all of our searches have happy endings. We often find the missing persons who have already succumbed, and in this case, we provide closure to the family.

In 2015 for our dedication to our community, the team was awarded The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service – the highest award a volunteer group can achieve.

More About Who We Search For

Search Dogs Sussex at BBC

ITV News Report

How Our Dogs Search

All our dogs are "air-scenting" search dogs. They are trained and assessed to search off-road terrain, from the flattest farms to serious mountains, day and night, whatever the weather, for many hours at a time.

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