FAQs

YOU HAVE QUESTIONS, WE HAVE ANSWERS

What Is C.E.M.P.?

Although C.E.M.P. has been around for over a half century, there are many in the community who have never heard of us and have no idea how we work. This is probably a good thing. If you haven’t met us, you haven’t needed us. We do the work not for pay or recognition, but because we have a true, genuine drive to give back to the community by helping people in crisis.

But how? How does it work? Who are we? Please pick a question below for some answers. And if you don’t see the answer to your specific question, by all means Contact Us anytime.

C.E.M.P. stands for California Emergency Mobile Patrol. We’re a suburban Search & Rescue team (actually the only suburban Search & Rescue team) in the city of Los Angeles. We work under the “umbrella” of the LAPD but we are not a government agency. We’re an all-volunteer, non-profit, incorporated organization made up of men and women who work full time at their jobs and then volunteer on their off time for the team.

No. Most Search & Rescue teams in the United States are not full-time paid teams. There simply isn’t a budget for it. Or a need for it. Search teams are called out only as needed and most agencies can’t justify paying groups of people to sit and wait for a call. And most county, state and local governments simply don’t have the money to employ us even on a part-time basis.

Interesting note: As the Baby Boomer generation retires and more people develop dementia, the rate of “walk offs” is guaranteed to substantially increase to an alarming rate. We feel that agencies in large cities will have no choice but to include search teams in emergency budgets.

Although not employees and not funded (we don’t even receive gasoline for our rigs), we are at the beckon call to area agencies such as the LAPD. This commitment is a great strain to us financially, as all of our funds come from donations and/or out-of-pocket expenses.

C.E.M.P. was formed in 1962 by some helpful radio communication volunteers to help the city in times of disaster. Although we have evolved through many changes, our team has been in existence for almost 60 years! We invite you to visit our Virtual Museum to learn more about our history.

There is absolutely no pattern to our callout frequency. Some months we are called out almost every day, while other months we’re hardly called out at all. It is very sporadic. Usually, however, when it rains it pours and we get very busy, very fast.

We are primarily a Search & Rescue team, meaning we are called upon to help look for missing persons. We also have a lighting team that is deployed for crime scenes, accident investigations and evidence searches. We also handle traffic control, disaster response and arson watch. For a complete overview of what we do, visit our Services Page.

No. The fire department’s Urban Search & Rescue teams are part of the Los Angeles City (and County) Fire Departments. These guys are full time firefighters who perform search and rescue missions in burning and collapsed structures. They don’t look for missing persons.

It’s not. Our team is very versatile, however, and quite often used by the LAPD for other missions, such as lighting crime and accident scenes, evidence searches, evacuations and even traffic control at road closures.

Our applicant process includes six months of training in search techniques, rescue operations, incident command system, agency protocols and more. All of our members are advanced first aid trained (many are EMTs) and have been trained and certified in SARTech III, CERT, truck driving, communications procedures and command post operations. Our team also receives outside training from experts in the field, including a very extensive program involving the “At Risk” missing person.

You can donate online HERE, or you can always Contact Us to make a check donation or personal gift. All donations are tax-deductible contributions.

You can join our team by filling out an Online Application. Then, attend an Orientation and learn all about us. Please visit our Recruitment Page for more information.

Since our callouts and details vary each month, it’s very difficult to explain how many hours we ask for. We do require new members to put in 60% of the mandatory hours. Some months this can be as little as 10 hours, others it can be as much as 50. We just ask that you give what you can, stay flexible and commit to us as much as you can.

Absolutely. We have been around for 50 years for several reasons; one of which is we take great efforts to ensure our team is made up of good people who want to help and not become part of the problem. We are also based at the LAPD’s Devonshire Division, which has very strict restrictions on who has access to the police department’s property, intelligence and general operations.

Every potential member must submit to a background check performed by the Los Angeles Police Department, including a LiveScan fingerprinting procedure.

QUICK CONTACT

C.E.M.P. Search & Rescue
P.O. Box 33631
Granada Hills, CA 91394

operations@cemp.org
24-Hours a Day via RACR Division

OTHER RESOURCES

Los Angeles Police Department
Los Angeles City Fire Department
Los Angeles Park Rangers
Mountains Recreation & Conservation Authority
L.A. County Sheriff’s Department