JT,
Please allow me to re-introduce myself to you (the first time was on the truck recovery you worked in December at Lock 2 ramp). I am David Crane, Captain with the Emergency Support Unit of the Mayors Office of Emergency Management and Chief Dive Officer of the O.E.M. Dive Search & Recovery Team. You may not be fully aware of us, but we are Metros established dive recovery team. We are responsible for body and evidence recovery for Davidson County. The Metro Police Department and Fire Departments senior officers are fully aware of us and call on our dive and sonar teams as needed. The Police Department has recently looked into restarting its team and decided there wasnt enough of a need to justify the expense.
Our team members came to the table with a full spectrum of training certifications including several Dive Masters, Assistant Instructors, Instructor, Cavern, Deco, Tri-mix, and Commercial. However, these wouldnt cut it for the type of work we do. All team members have gone to great lengths to insure we have the proper training by an agency dedicated to public safety diving. By this, we are more than capable of proper and safe recovery of evidence (understand we treat all body recoveries as evidence as we might not know if a body underwater could be related to a crime. Believe me, not everyone can or should do this.). What this means is every member is certified as a (PSD) Public Safety Diver, not that they hold a PSD specialty from a recreational agency. We have also gone to great lengths to see that our team and the Fire Departments water rescue divers all match in training, certification, equipment and so forth.
Since we became operational, we have managed to reduce the recovery time of drowning victims from 3-5 days (drag hooks, luck, & nature running its course) to 2-3 hours (side-scan sonar & SCUBA). There are areas in which we are not trained and will not presently dive such as hull inspections or search/recovery for underwater hazardous devices. However, in this area and to my knowledge, this has never been an issue.
Please dont misunderstand my message. We have taken all possible steps to reduce and eliminate the us versus them dynamic that can be seen between different departments and I hope it stays that way. We tend to concentrate on helping any department (Police, Fire, Mutual Aid, etc.) that calls us and to safely get the job done. All of this being said we are always looking for well-qualified and able bodies to volunteer.
Please do not hesitate to contact me if I can be of assistance. BE SAFE.
