Committee members
Derek Pratt, MBE
Chair
Derek Pratt MBE has been the Chair of SCST since 2015, and is also a Dispatcher, Controller, Team Leader and First Aider. Prior to that he was the Chair of the North Sussex Search Team. In the Queen’s Birthday Honours List 2020 Derek was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE), for services to Crime Prevention and Public Safety. Derek is also the Deputy Chair and Secretary of the Sussex Neighbourhood Watch Federation, and a Police Support Volunteer. He is a Fellow of The Chartered Insurance Institute, The Chartered Governance Institute, and The Australian & New Zealand Institute of Insurance and Finance.
Rachel Mundy
Secretary
I was the Police liaison for the North Sussex Search Team from 2007 and then for the current team, Sussex Community Search Team, since its formation in 2015. I retired from the Police in 2022, having served 30 years. I have carried on with the search team as a volunteer.
Mike Reynolds
Treasurer
I have spent the early years of my working life working in IT and networking, but in later years I established my own business delivering project management training and consultancy. I took on the role of SCST Treasurer in April 2022, having been a member of the team since the amalgamation of the Search teams, approximately 10 years ago.
Kevin Trust
Volunteer
I live in Fontwell where I run a B&B with my wife Sue. I previously served 35 years in the Fire and Rescue Service and have been with the search team for 12 years.
Terry Cunliffe
Volunteer
I joined the Search Team 17 years ago. Being self-employed in Electrical Engineering, I was in a position to respond to callouts at short notice, to what was a higher number of callouts in those days. Now retired, I continue to work on searches and for the past few years, I have also taken part, role-playing, with new recruits at Sussex Police Headquarters.
Karen Ellis
Volunteer
I’ve been a member since 2010. I’m a Team Leader and now deliver the Training of new recruits and arrange Search Exercises. The reason I search is to try and preserve life or help to bring closure to families and tragic circumstances.
Paula Davis
Volunteer
I am proud to be a Primary School Teacher, and also teach in secondary schools and occasionally work in alternative Provision Colleges. As well as enjoying the voluntary search team commitments, I am also a community First Responder in Horsham and respond to 999 and 111 calls on behalf of the Ambulance service (SECamb.) I love spending time with family; in nature and at my beach hut in Worthing!
Debbie Bellisio
Volunteer
I joined SCST in April 2023 and have been a member of the committee since April 2024.
Previously I was a volunteer Response Team Member for an international disaster relief charity and was deployed abroad to support people in rebuilding their lives after disaster or conflict.
Having witnessed first hand the positive and lasting effect that volunteers have on the lives of vulnerable people in the wake of traumatic events, I believe we should all take pride in the service SCST provides to our local community, not only as a search asset for Sussex Police but also for the support we provide to the training of multiple emergency services.
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