New Jersey Search and Rescue (NJSAR), a team of more than 50 highly trained volunteers who conduct an average of 25 missing-person searches per year, installed an HP DesignJet T2500 Multifunction Printer (MFP) to produce large-format maps to aid in search-and-rescue missions. On call 24 hours a day, seven days a week and 365 days a year, NJSAR provides New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania with incident management, mountain rescue, ground search, medical, and K-9 search-and-rescue services. 

Helping NJSAR remain on the forefront of search-and rescue-strategy, the HP DesignJet T2500 MFP scans, prints and copies 36-inch maps to help the team collaborate and streamline communications. With time of the essence, the machine offers crucial mobile printing, allowing search teams to print straight from their Apple® or Android™ smartphones or tablets wherever or whenever is needed.

“Before installing the HP DesignJet T2500 MFP, our team was limited to printing tiled maps on 8.5x11-inch paper and taping the pieces together, or just using small maps, which made it difficult for incident management staff to collaborate on scene,” explained David Clarke, president, New Jersey Search and Rescue. “With the HP DesignJet T2500 MFP, we are equipped to produce large-scale maps quickly and reliably to help us optimize our search efforts and help return missing persons to their families.”

Search missions involve many organizations including search-and-rescue teams, local law enforcement, EMS, fire and local government entities. The large-format maps printed on the HP DesignJet T2500 MFP are critical in delineating search areas, keeping track of searchers’ locations, recording clues, highlighting areas of interest and defining regions that have already been searched. At the end of a search-and-rescue mission, the maps used have been annotated and highlighted by numerous members of the command staff, creating an irreplaceable record of what happened that day. NJSAR team members can simply feed these maps into the HP DesignJet T2500 MFP’s 36-inch scanner to instantly create digitized records of the mission, which can then be shared with law enforcement and other partners.