Buff,
You should contact your local sherrif department and emergency services division. Ask about local response teams, search and recovery teams (SAR), fire department special unit teams, and rescue squad speciality teams. I am a member of my local response team. We do body and evidence search and recovery, high angle low angle rescue, swift water rescue, man hunts and other really interesting stuff.
Our team is the only local active dive team around. When needed we can call in national wildlife, DNR, or the sherrifs dive group.
If you call some of those people, they should be able to point you in the right direction. If there is not a local team, you should read Advanced Rescue Technology There was an article in one of the summer issues about starting special rescue teams especially dive teams.
As you will learn or already know, search and rescue diving is not your normal scuba diving. You will be in enviroments where no one else wants to go.
Good luck with it,
ADAM