Look around your area and find a volunteer fire department. Inquire with them about joining their department and getting some training. Most departments love to get experienced divers on their teams.Diesel298:
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gecko3s
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Ok it's a union thing, I'll buy that. The only reason I said what I did is that as a correctional officer, I don't have the opportunity to be a part of our sheriff's office dive team (Yes I work for the JSO, yes I'm a member of the FOP). I could only assume it had something to do with being in possession of a police car.
Locally we have asimilar problem - the dive rescue squad is composed of mostly full time police officers and firemen with a few reserve officers. Civilian divers are excluded (alledgedly) primarily due to insurance reasons and due to to their being less likey to be able to respond as fast.
In practice, many of the "divers" on the squad are recently OW certified with little or no public safety dive training. Few of the divers acticvely dive and only 4 or 5 meet the required 12 dives per year. Training has been a joke and divers do not take it very seriously as there are few calls per year. When a call does come, getting 3 divers on site is a real accomplishment. In practice, with the response time, most calls end up being recoveries not rescues. The dive rescue squad is a fairly attractive merit badge to have but only 4 or 5 of the divers strike me as being dedicated divers.
Locally we would be far better served by having a "rescue" squad compised of active duty police and firemen (the 4 or 5 who are serious about it) who have a higher probbalility of shorter response times (if they are on duty) backed up by a "recovery" team comprised of highly experienced volunteer divers who dive frequently and have the skills required to, for example, search a football field sized area of 100' deep near zero visibility water to recover a body. But the issue is very political with the existing powers that be not wanting to change the existing system or even admit it has problems. And I agree, the post 9-11 funding opprtunities have made full time paid squads even more entrenched.
In practice, many of the "divers" on the squad are recently OW certified with little or no public safety dive training. Few of the divers acticvely dive and only 4 or 5 meet the required 12 dives per year. Training has been a joke and divers do not take it very seriously as there are few calls per year. When a call does come, getting 3 divers on site is a real accomplishment. In practice, with the response time, most calls end up being recoveries not rescues. The dive rescue squad is a fairly attractive merit badge to have but only 4 or 5 of the divers strike me as being dedicated divers.
Locally we would be far better served by having a "rescue" squad compised of active duty police and firemen (the 4 or 5 who are serious about it) who have a higher probbalility of shorter response times (if they are on duty) backed up by a "recovery" team comprised of highly experienced volunteer divers who dive frequently and have the skills required to, for example, search a football field sized area of 100' deep near zero visibility water to recover a body. But the issue is very political with the existing powers that be not wanting to change the existing system or even admit it has problems. And I agree, the post 9-11 funding opprtunities have made full time paid squads even more entrenched.
There are ways that people can be put onto a law enforcement agency, if said agency wants them to be on it. As a profession I am a full time Paramedic. I am also founding member of my counties Dive Rescue team, as well as a full time S.W.A.T. tactical officer/Medic. I am employed by the county commision and therefore am covered under workers compensation for any injuries occured.
In addtion to this we have a national disaster team which encorporates SRT (Swift water rescue), boat ops, search and rescue, haz-mat, dive-rescue, public safety divers (body recoveries, criminal evidence collection) and high angle rescue. We are being put on the FEMA list for first responders in this next years up and coming hurricane season. Within this team we incorporate members from paid EMS, paid law enforcement, paid fire, and volunteer EMS/fire departments. Even tho we all act as a team each person is covered under their respective departments workers compensation team.
Now, why did I spell all this out? This is a way some of you can organize a county wide team, with multiple departments, to act as one. Need members of a dive team to dive for the Sheriffs department? No problem, with a county wide team this is possible.
Just this past week I, a divemaster with our counties Dive Team, dove with members of the State Police Dive team and FBI divers. We all worked together as a team to recover the body of a murdered 2 year old. In these operations we had members from the county disaster team, the county ems agency, the county sheriffs department, the US Coast Guard, the counties SWAT team, the local violent crime/drug task force, FBI, DNR, Salvation Army, and the Red Cross. We all worked together, as a unified force, to get the task at hand accomplished. We had one incident command center that coordinated all movements including aircraft searchs (helo) and commercial barge traffic on the river.
It can be done, it takes alot of dedication and cooperation and a desire for the greater good. Some of the people in this county had to lose the ego for this to happen, which they did, and the teams came together about 8 years ago.
Feel free to contact me anytime if your intrested in putting together a county wide organization for more details, I can let you know what worked and what failed. Learn from our mistakes and successes.
In addtion to this we have a national disaster team which encorporates SRT (Swift water rescue), boat ops, search and rescue, haz-mat, dive-rescue, public safety divers (body recoveries, criminal evidence collection) and high angle rescue. We are being put on the FEMA list for first responders in this next years up and coming hurricane season. Within this team we incorporate members from paid EMS, paid law enforcement, paid fire, and volunteer EMS/fire departments. Even tho we all act as a team each person is covered under their respective departments workers compensation team.
Now, why did I spell all this out? This is a way some of you can organize a county wide team, with multiple departments, to act as one. Need members of a dive team to dive for the Sheriffs department? No problem, with a county wide team this is possible.
Just this past week I, a divemaster with our counties Dive Team, dove with members of the State Police Dive team and FBI divers. We all worked together as a team to recover the body of a murdered 2 year old. In these operations we had members from the county disaster team, the county ems agency, the county sheriffs department, the US Coast Guard, the counties SWAT team, the local violent crime/drug task force, FBI, DNR, Salvation Army, and the Red Cross. We all worked together, as a unified force, to get the task at hand accomplished. We had one incident command center that coordinated all movements including aircraft searchs (helo) and commercial barge traffic on the river.
It can be done, it takes alot of dedication and cooperation and a desire for the greater good. Some of the people in this county had to lose the ego for this to happen, which they did, and the teams came together about 8 years ago.
Feel free to contact me anytime if your intrested in putting together a county wide organization for more details, I can let you know what worked and what failed. Learn from our mistakes and successes.
geko3s
It will depend upon where you are. Different parts of the country address the need differrently. The PSD organization that I dive for is a part of the fire department. We do all PSD dives, which are mostly recoveries or evidence searches. We also do all of the swift water technical operations (which, until recently, were a fairly common occurrence here in Texas). Out of 850 firefighters, there are only 50 of us on the team.
You need to contact you local service and see if it is plausible for you to become a member. If none exists, then perhaps you will become one of the founding members (if a need can be established, after all, not a lot of need for a dive team in Death Valley
). As far as tgraining goes, the local service will provide you with what is appropriate for the particular area you are in. You can also do some internet searches for various sites, such as public safety diver training, etc.
It will depend upon where you are. Different parts of the country address the need differrently. The PSD organization that I dive for is a part of the fire department. We do all PSD dives, which are mostly recoveries or evidence searches. We also do all of the swift water technical operations (which, until recently, were a fairly common occurrence here in Texas). Out of 850 firefighters, there are only 50 of us on the team.
You need to contact you local service and see if it is plausible for you to become a member. If none exists, then perhaps you will become one of the founding members (if a need can be established, after all, not a lot of need for a dive team in Death Valley
). As far as tgraining goes, the local service will provide you with what is appropriate for the particular area you are in. You can also do some internet searches for various sites, such as public safety diver training, etc.Similar threads
