Starting a Police Dive Team

[Boater Dan]

James:

Thanks for directing the post back to it's purpose. If you are able to gather both support and funding through your county government, then go for it. Funding is somewhat difficult to garner as the Dive Team is not always highly active or required at any given time. That was why I had suggested working with the Volunteer Group.

I have been watching for Grant Money wherever I can find it. It unfortunately is very limited. As a FD team, we were able to procure some funding through the Assistance to Fire Fighters Grant Program. Other than that, I have applied for some State Legislative Initiative Grants, but will not know anything until much later this year. (Those were for some very small amounts and no where near enough to fund a new team operation).

From a Law Enforcement perspective, I am not certain what is available. I know there is a great deal of Homeland Defense funding which is being thrown about, but I do not know what is available or how to apply. There are other LEO's on the forum who may know more about it. Being that you are in the DC area and the other critical areas, I would imagine that would be a big plus in gaining approval.

Good luck!

Dan

 

[Gary D.]

I can’t tell you how our team started because nobody is even alive that started it.

I can go back around 40 years with it. The past 30 years has been easy because I’ve been on it. Before that the history is very weak but we think it started around 1955. I would not have liked being on the team back then; it was rough enough when I started.

We were a mix of Sworn and civilian divers and a Recovery Team until around 1985 when we started getting cars issued to us. A short time later we went in-house with the team.

Then we still had a problem with gear as everyone had something different. It didn’t take the department long to realize that was a safety issue so they spent some bucks and got us uniform and trained.

First was neoprene dry suits and USD reg packages. Still took too long to get suited so we started experimenting with shell suits. After a few lesser expensive brands we went with Viking and now for speed and size versatility we are with DUI.

We had trouble with freezing regs, kited or not, so we were going with either Poseidon or Sherwood. Sherwood won out because of local maintenance, cost as well as some other issues. We a couple of the guys that still use them on their own and as far as work goes they are about equal under the ice.

Once we had the cars, training and the gear we became a Rescue Team. Having 1400 sq. miles of mountainous county with a LOT of water volunteer teams would be recovery at the best. Don’t go off on that statement until you read the rest.

This is our job; we are on call 24-7-365. We don’t have a paying job that we would have to leave, get into a POV and drive to a scene obeying all traffic laws.

We have a marked unit, fully stocked, always fueled (it better be), are trained and used to running Code in heavy traffic and remote areas. We have areas of the county that take us 45-minutes plus running Code to. It would take a lot longer in a POV.

A lot of the time, at night, there are two divers on duty at a time. So in the middle of the night when everyone is sleeping or at another job we are already enroute. During the day it’s not unusual to have 3 or more on at any given time.

Our job is a little different than a civilian job. The Tone goes off and we drop what we are doing and roll. There are some exceptions but not many. In the civilian world most jobs just won’t allow that.

There is a need for both teams. A lot is depending on your needs, geographical area, population, distance to cover and types of water. There is no one right or wrong answer both teams are useful.

One thing I’m happy to report is we have never had a lost time accident involving the team on our home turf. A lot of the teams around us have either lost a diver or two or had some serious accidents.

Just remember that both types of teams are needed. What fits your needs best is they way a department needs to go.

Gary D.

 

[Bowtie22]

Thanks for that post, it really says a lot and reiterates the importance of both teams. Hopefully my agency will get things together here soon and get approval for the funding.

 

[james croft]

I supervise a state law enforcement underwiter criminal investigations unit. It started the way most dive teams started, by recreational divers attempting to do the job with recreational training. Not safe and not very efficient. By networking with other professionally equipped and trained teams and receiving PSD training it slowly began to take shape with a handful of dedicated guys who scrounged equipment. I worked with other teams who were not cops, but firefighters, and they were first class. Many of them were certified as underwater criminal investigators or equivalent. By training with other teams you do not have to reinvent the wheel and you gain valuable experience.
I can tell you that most search patterns taught by various recreational agencies DO NOT work in the conditions PSD encounter. Our divers received certifications from Dive Rescue International as Public Safety Divers and Rescue Divers as well as Underwater Investigators. In addition to this we hold a certification as Underwater Criminal Investigators from UCI taught by Mike Berry in Virginia. You need to start finding evidence and recovering stolen gear no one is looking for. Dive bridges and other dumping spots such as boat ramps and find some guns, safes and cars and the bosses will notice. The more you produce, the bigger your dive budget becomes. If you want to run with the big dogs you need to hang with some. Get advice from and work with teams that utilize training from Dive Rescue and not PADI. I am a PADI divemaster and Asst. Instructor. Believe me when I say the stuff they teach will not equip you to do public safety diving. Do not make the mistake of advertising as a "Search & Rescue" team. You will not rescue anybody. As a Sheriff's Dept. team you need to specialize in underwater criminal investigations. That is where you can earn your pay and actually do something to help your agency..

 

[Sky Shark]

Touche!, James Croft...I've been on my S.O.'s "dive team" (10 members) for 5 years...when I first came on board I was happy as a clam...it didn't take long to see some major issues...primarily, leadership, i.e. a commander who knows more about a bass tournament than search line, next, two factions; three serious divers, about seven who are only into the MTT while on duty (Maximum Tanning Time)...my first exposure was "you'll have to provide your own gear", my response was "no prob, I've seen yours" (I thought that it had been stolen of the "Sea Hunt" set...call outs were totally unrealistic...a roster existed but either AA's were issued with the pagers or something...my first dive buddy here was a former Marine (I'm retired Army) and also on the dive team, and after the Marine/ Army rivalry was over and several beers and a couple of "I love you, man"s, we made a pact of "if you get called out, call me, I'll go on or off the clock" previously a call out was done by one person, an idiotic and dangerous policy, after a few "I reserve the right to decide whether I splash or not and if Billy Bob and Joe Bob aren't here, I'm not going over the side"...it took a few times but then it was policy...when we had meeting to announce a 'surprize' equipment inventory I stood up and added "bring your C-card, 'cause if you don't have one I'm not diving with you, you're not diving with me"...starting a dive team is hard, maintaining one is difficult...trying to unseat a bunch of boat drivers and leg swingers is a real b****, good luck...but if you hang in there, stick to your guns and TRAIN, you'll quickly weed out those who work and those who play....

 

[Sky Shark]

...also, here we have an excellent Search/ Rescue team from the FD, the surounding areas are mostly VFD guys, and most are very good because they train, again I'm with the SO and we do the recovery if its accident, criminal or 'unattended death'...again law enforcement related...and times like last November when a Cesnna crashed into the river we were ALL out there from Corps of Engrs to the CG Auxillery...we often work together, and in good humor because at one time or another we have "all towed each other back ro the dock", its a who buys the beer thing,...the FD search and rescue guys are usually the quickest..our team is not full time, the members are full time patrol or CID, we all can switch to one freq and talk to each other on the the spot and often another agency will be in town for some training and we'll provide the boats, but only when operated by one of us...smiles, smiles evryone...

 

[Cap335]

Thanks for the info Blades!


I am simply asking how a Police agency can start up a dive team. I am not running a campaign to overthrow or put the volunteer teams out of business. I would enjoy working hand and foot with them on missions and I feel that it is important to do so. In fact I think that a volunteer dive team and a police dive team could more than likely learn a lot from each other. (Can anyone disagree with that statement?)

To start you need to talk to the person in your department that handles to budget and see what it would take to get some money. Next go to a LDS and find out if any of the mfgs will work with you on pricing. Some of the things you will want are tanks. drysuits, fullface mask with comm gear. will the divers have to supply thier own gear or will the department. Remember that the gear will take alot of abuse compared with recreational diving. The next step is to determine the level of training you expect the divers to have. No basic diver training is enough to make a diver comfortable or effective in the visability (zero) that you can expect doing this kind of work. The training standards that you establish for your divers should apply to all divers paid or not. IANTD and Lifegaurd Systems come to mind as training organizations. You might check with Big Jet Driver in the above post as he does this kind of training..