I have heard that our local PD uses non-law enforcment divers to retrieve non forensic items from local waters (ponds, lakes, rivers) My question is what type of dive training do I need. The estimated cost for classes and my own equipment. I think this would be very interesting to do. Not to take away from the pros. but we have a small PD in the area. If I am wrong oh well it would still be cool to learn how to dive. One of the lakes in this area is man made by the railroad many years ago for the old steam engines. It would be interesting to see whats down there one day. Thanks
question for the pros
- Thread starter gibb68
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Here are the steps I would recommend(I hope I answer your questions logically but I am still only on my first coffee of the day.....
1. Go to the local PD and find out if them using divers is true. Get a contact name.
2. Locate a dive shop and take your Open Water SCUBA course
3. Take a year or so and dive. A LOT. Improve on your skills you learned in your OW class.
4. Once you feel relaxed and completely comfortable in the water, do another 25-50 hours of bottom time.
5. Speak to the divers used by the PO and ask questions.
- Is the team an official Public Safety Dive Team
- What gear configuration are they using (It is IMO important for team members to be set up with the same gear configuration
- Who are they trained through? There are serveral very good PSD training agencies out there. Ideally you want the same training as everyone else on your team.
If it turns out they have no training in PSD and it is a group of local divers that the police simply call and say "Can you get that for us?" you may want to take the bull by the horns. Form an actual team..., get the Local POs to 'recognize' it (It shouldn't cost them anything to say you guys are a team they recognize and use) as most PSD agencies will not teach someone unles they are attached to a recognized PSD team.
Once that is done, research and contact either ERDi (Emergency Response Diving International), LGS (LIfeguard Systems) or DRI (Dive Rescue International). All three teach public safety diving in the US and have good quality programs. You won't go wrong with any of them.
Good Luck...
1. Go to the local PD and find out if them using divers is true. Get a contact name.
2. Locate a dive shop and take your Open Water SCUBA course
3. Take a year or so and dive. A LOT. Improve on your skills you learned in your OW class.
4. Once you feel relaxed and completely comfortable in the water, do another 25-50 hours of bottom time.
5. Speak to the divers used by the PO and ask questions.
- Is the team an official Public Safety Dive Team
- What gear configuration are they using (It is IMO important for team members to be set up with the same gear configuration
- Who are they trained through? There are serveral very good PSD training agencies out there. Ideally you want the same training as everyone else on your team.
If it turns out they have no training in PSD and it is a group of local divers that the police simply call and say "Can you get that for us?" you may want to take the bull by the horns. Form an actual team..., get the Local POs to 'recognize' it (It shouldn't cost them anything to say you guys are a team they recognize and use) as most PSD agencies will not teach someone unles they are attached to a recognized PSD team.
Once that is done, research and contact either ERDi (Emergency Response Diving International), LGS (LIfeguard Systems) or DRI (Dive Rescue International). All three teach public safety diving in the US and have good quality programs. You won't go wrong with any of them.
Good Luck...
Other than the above, if you have a local volunteer FD with a dive team, join them and get your training through the department.
Thanks very much for the info. I'll check with the local PD and our VFD, I know a few guys there also I can get info from. Thanks again. Hope one day to be able to come back on here and post about some finds. But that will be way down the road. But I will hang out here it's very interesting reading the posts. But either way I still want to learn to dive just to see what people dump in our lakes.
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