As a team leader for 3 of the 7 Public Safety teams that I dive for (here in North Carolina), and being a shop owner, coercing Public Safety Divers is not so simple. The problem is most if not all are volunteers and they don't want to spend money. Being "TIGHT," as some would say, (and I being a Public Servant can understand why people say this), is something that has plagued the Public Service for a long time. Volunteer agencies, where divers supply all there own gear, and training, are usually on limited incomes and typically won't spend the money to go on a trip somewhere. Another reason (speaking for volunteer agencies and members) is that the individual members feel they don't need to go diving and they rely on the equipment instead of skills and knowledge. It is no different with Law Enforcement Agencies who allow officers to qualify each year standing in one place shooting at paper targets, instead of shooting on the move and looking for cover, or practicing shooting from a seated position in a vehicle. We react the way we are trained. Thankfully the 2 Law Enforcement Agencies that I worked for, required more qualification than the minimum required by the state. Even in the Fire Service and EMS field, when I train new EMT's we don't just spend time in the classroom, we take them on calls with us, and have them do live scenarios, with real patients. The only way I can see members of a Public Safety Team going on dives non related is to reduce the cost of the trip or dive to nothing. With volunteers, I have noticed that 60% of the ones I have trained in the last year, never go beyond Open Water, primarily because they would have to pay out of their pockets for the training. The Departments pay to get them certified, but refuse to pay for any continuing education. It should be the other way around. Have the members who want to be on a team, pay for the Open Water, and then based off assessments of each member, have the Departments pay for the continuing education. Other than providing trips, equipment, training, and etc. at cost you really have to bring your A-game when Marketing to the Public Safety Market. We currently have a written contract with one of our local Departments that we assist with, in recoveries simply because the members of that Department are not trained sufficiently enough to do the job nor do they have the appropriate equipment. And instead of paying the money to get the divers up to speed, they hire us third party (LAKE HICKORY PUBLIC SAFETY DIVE TEAM, operated under Lake Hickory Scuba & Marina, and all of our members are Public Servants, Under Water Criminal Investigators, Public Safety Divers, and Dive Instructors), for all their diving needs. Over time, departments realize the initial cost to train and equipped their divers is cheap compared to paying a third party team to do the work.
Now with that rant over, my current Fire Department that I work for, has a Haunted Trail Fund Raiser every year and the proceeds go to the Fire Personnel not to the Department. Those funds can be used for anything from work out equipment, to recreational equipment to what ever the members want. This is usually around $6000 to $10,000 a year. Maybe the same logic could be used for Public Safety Dive teams. Have a fund raiser and use the proceeds to go on trips. That way the members would not be paying out of pocket for the trip. Of course there is still the option of making it mandatory, however, anyone else in the volunteer world knows mandatory does not mean a lot. I use to say all the time, if you got rid of volunteer fireman who did not get all the required training in that was required for that year, you would not have a department. I would definitely check into the fund raiser idea and see if that would work.
