Illinois introducing dive team funding legislation.

[seductiveconcepts]

Hey guys, I have recently heard that some legislation is about to be introduced into the state legislature regarding dive rescue team funding. Now I have not been able to find the bill yet, so I am going on hearsay... This is a great bit of news, however it also comes with a grim tale as well. The proposal as it was told to me, will add funding to dive teams through the use of a surcharge added to boat licensing fees... The catch is however that the funding is aimed at only fire department based dive teams. I think this legislation is vital to the continued success and advancement of public safety dive teams, however I think essentially we are selling short a vast amount of great quality teams statewide. My team is by many opinions one of the area leaders in terms of dive rescue and we have worked very hard to achieve this, however we are a standalone team (loosely affiliated with the sheriffs dept) and as I understand would not receive any funding under this new legislation. I think the need for quality public safety dive teams is crucial, and I in no way mean to further the police vs fire debate, both teams each have their own pivotal roles in dive rescue and now more so than ever we need to step back and say I know this would benefit my team but would it be good for the public safety diving community as a whole. So my question is two fold:

First has anyone heard of this piece of legislation or know of a link to it?

Secondly, (attn: Blades & IADRS) can anyone provide some detailed stats on the number of water incidents, and response types? i.e. x number of drownings, x number of boating accidents, u/w evidence recoveries, crime scene investigations etc...

Any information or stats anyone can throw out would be great help for furthering my search on this, as well as help when contacting my state reps.

Jeremy K.

 

[dittrimd]

Hey Jeremy,

Thanks for the information. It is nice to see a state taking up to that level. I would like to see my home state of Connecticut take up something like that.

As for your specific legislation I was looking through the websites you linked to. On the Illinois Water Rescue Association website they have a couple links about the draft of the amendment they authored as well as a link to "the Law" which takes you to this PDF. Is this what you are looking for or is this something new?

http://www.illinoiswaterrescue.org/An_Amendment_to_the_Water_Rescue_Act.pdf

Public Act 90-0440
SB315 Enrolled LRB9002215LDcw
AN ACT in relation to emergency services.
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
represented in the General Assembly:
Section 1. Short title. This Act may be cited as the
Water Rescue Act.

It was reportedly voted without opposition in 1997.

Mark D.

 

[MikeFerrara]

I think it's a given that there are too many teams oporating with inadequate funding and therefor inadequate training and equipment.

But...I don't know why boaters should be the one paying for it. What are most dive team calls? Looking for bodies or crime evidence? Are dive teams going to start retrieving our lost fishing lures for us or something?

"Most" teams that I know of are part of fire departments, police departments or the DNR. Aren't all those agencies already funded? Some pretty small municipalities have some pretty fancy swat teams and such, why not a dive team if they need one.

Sadly, there is just too much politics in this mess to jump for joy over another tax levied against a group that shouldn't be responsible in order to pay for something that should already have more than enough funding when and where it's really needed. Sorry sounds like a lot of BS to me.

BTW, poli = many and tics = blood sucking creatures and politics means many blood sucking creatures.

 

[PHIL RUDIN]

As a thirty year member of the West Palm Beach Police Department Dive Team and having thirteen years as Dive Team Commander I can say without reservation that recovering cars is the number one issue with most south Florida dive teams. Police recover stolen vehicles, vehicles sunk to recover insurance, vehicles accidentally driven into the water, vehicles driven into the water during pursuits and so on. Fire responds to occupied vehicle calls as well. Calls involving boat recovery are the least of our worries.

If anyone is going to be taxes it should be auto policy holders not boaters. We deal with so many vehicle calls that many are turned over to tow truck operators who can bill the insurance companies direct.

It is true that police and fire departments are funded by tax payer dollars but departments also have serious politics regarding how that money is spent. SWAT for instance will always get funding before dive teams, which are often considered the red headed step child of the department. The chief knows he needs a dive team but wants to spend tax dollars elsewhere.

It appears to me that the Illinois legislation is as much about "homeland security" than it is about trying to make dive teams safer. Since 9/11 federal money has been flying all over the place for "homeland security". If you have a port, bridge, power plant, airport, dam, etc. in your town chances are you can get funding.

In my area we do port security, E.G. hull inspections at The Port of Palm Beach on a very regular basis for U.S Customs and for Secret Service when high profile persons like sitting or past Presidents are in the area and boarding vessel.

As the Commander of the dive team my budget from tax dollars was about $300.00 a year. This was for air, nitrox and equipment repair and rebuild. Since our teams do not include volunteers, work hours and overtime are already addressed in the annual budget. Training is done in-house for police and fire with training days each month. The bulk of our equipment including Kerby-Morgan Mk-17 hardhats and surface supplies air/com. was obtained with money from forfeitures which by law have to be returned back to police departments for equipment. This is mostly drug money obtained through the sale of boats, air planes, vehicles and trailers, property and other related items seized and forfeited to the city or county.

The money was obtained by request of the city commission through the Chief of Police. I would send a request direct to the Chief saying that divers would be killed or injured without the needed equipment (with supporting evidence from industry news) letting the buck stop with the Chief. The Chief would then send the request on 99% of the time to let the buck stop with city hall.

I am well aware that many police and fire departments in the country are not in areas where they have the resource of forfeiture funds, but many are and it is a resource that should be taken advantage of.

Phil Rudin

Dive Team Commander-West Palm Beach P.D. (Retired)

 

[seductiveconcepts]

Thanks for the information. It is nice to see a state taking up to that level. I would like to see my home state of Connecticut take up something like that.

As for your specific legislation I was looking through the websites you linked to. On the Illinois Water Rescue Association website they have a couple links about the draft of the amendment they authored as well as a link to "the Law" which takes you to this PDF. Is this what you are looking for or is this something new?

http://www.illinoiswaterrescue.org/An_Amendment_to_the_Water_Rescue_Act.pdf

Actually I built that site for the IWRA, and that is the legislation that they have been wishing to push for a couple of years now, and actually benefits dive teams across the board. The association has members from all over the state from the northern Chicago tip to the southern most rural counties, and they all have great ideas to create an extensive mutual aid system, however due to restrictions with operating budgets it just hasn't been able to become a reality. The association sees a need for this because if you look at almost any extensive operation it really drains the resources of almost any team. My concern now is trying to educate our Representatives to see that limiting the current proposal would cut out a majority of rescue teams particularly downstate.

But...I don't know why boaters should be the one paying for it. What are most dive team calls? Looking for bodies or crime evidence? Are dive teams going to start retrieving our lost fishing lures for us or something?

"Most" teams that I know of are part of fire departments, police departments or the DNR. Aren't all those agencies already funded? Some pretty small municipalities have some pretty fancy swat teams and such, why not a dive team if they need one.

I agree it is a bit one sided to make boat owners pay for this, but we are only talking about 2-3 dollars per year.

The problem with departments (police, fire) funding their teams is that the funding isn't getting to the teams. Fire departments can get fire grants and MABAS grants, but these most often do not apply to dive teams (why is beyond me). Police teams are often times putting their officers on the road, but not making enough manpower allotment for training each month. My team is a standalone team, we train every month, for several hours, plus must log a certain amount of time underwater each year on our own, plus have impromptu training every couple months. All of these individuals are unpaid volunteers operating on a yearly budget of 10k to cover fuel, gear, and maintenance (you must consider a drysuit and aga w/comms is nearly 5k). Also our team does a lot of crime scene work, but most often we provide standby for public events (triathlons, polar plunges, boat races) however we also do a lot of boating related work (someone fell out and drowned, or someone dumped their truck in the drink trying to pull out their boat) I would say a lot of our call-outs are from the boating enthusiasts.

 

[MikeFerrara]

I agree it is a bit one sided to make boat owners pay for this, but we are only talking about 2-3 dollars per year.

The problem with departments (police, fire) funding their teams is that the funding isn't getting to the teams. Fire departments can get fire grants and MABAS grants, but these most often do not apply to dive teams (why is beyond me). Police teams are often times putting their officers on the road, but not making enough manpower allotment for training each month.

It sounds like someone should clean house and get their priorities straight before sucking more out of the tax payer.

Also our team does a lot of crime scene work, but most often we provide standby for public events (triathlons, polar plunges, boat races) however we also do a lot of boating related work (someone fell out and drowned, or someone dumped their truck in the drink trying to pull out their boat) I would say a lot of our call-outs are from the boating enthusiasts.

I do't think it's appropriate to use tax money to provide standby for triathlons, polar plunges or boat races. That sounds completely crazy to me. Charge the participants for your services if they want them. LOL, for my money, you can have those days off.

If someone dumps their truck in the water launching their boat, give them a bill! Why would tax payers want to pay for that?

Legislators need to start thinking about benefits to the tax payer before increasing or instituting new taxes. Your state (I lived there most of my life) just raised the sales tax, in part, to pay for Chicago's CTA. Do you ride the CTA?

I have an idea. Make your Gov. live in Springfield and use the 5K/day he spends on that plane ride to work to fund some dive teams...that is, when he bothers to go to work.

 

[BladesRobinson]

Secondly, (attn: Blades & IADRS) can anyone provide some detailed stats on the number of water incidents, and response types? i.e. x number of drownings, x number of boating accidents, u/w evidence recoveries, crime scene investigations etc...

Jeremy,

I am not entirely certain what you are needing from me but if I can help, please contact me "offlist" at: brobinson @ iadrs.org

I am glad to help a member out at any time. That being said, I will add that I am aware of some of the things proposed in Illinois and from what I've been told, there is some tremendous planning going on. It appears that the fire services have been able to unify resources as opposed to duplication. I am optimistic that this will allow for a coordinated approach to providing PSD services and will prevent duplication of equipment purchases and services. The end result should be a savings to taxpayers AND better services.

Only time will tell if this approach is effective but I believe it will be. Assuming it is sucessful, I further believe it will be the model for all other States, but again, only time will tell.

Blades