Police diving

Police diving is a branch of professional diving carried out by police services. Police divers are usually sworn police officers, and may either be employed full-time as divers or as general water police officers, or be volunteers who usually serve in other units but are called in if their diving services are required.

The duties carried out by police divers include rescue diving for underwater casualties and search and recovery diving for evidence and bodies.[1]

"Public safety diving" is a term coined by Steven J Linton in the 1970s to describe underwater rescue, underwater recovery and underwater investigation conducted by divers working for or under the authority of municipal, state or federal agencies. These divers are typically members of police departments, sheriff's offices, fire rescue agencies, search and rescue teams or providers of emergency medical services. Public Safety Divers (PSDs) can be paid by the previously mentioned agencies or non-paid volunteers.

A fictional example of a police diver is Eric Delko from the CBS crime drama CSI: Miami.

Public safety diving

Two divers under a ship
Dominica Marine police, maneuver under a Barbadian coast guard ship looking for an inert training explosive

An extract from NYPD Scuba Team on what public safety diving includes:[2]

Due to the conditions in which accidents may happen, or where criminals may choose to dispose of evidence or their victims, police divers might need to dive:[3]

under hostile environmental conditions which can include:[3]

Recreational rescue diver courses

The term "Rescue Diver" in all recreational diving training agencies mainly means self rescue or buddy rescue under the normal diving conditions that someone would dive, how to avoid accidents by recognizing panicked divers and equipment failures and in case of an accident, basic first aid and how to manage a scene until the professionals arrive. Although these are good courses for improving someone’s diving skills and further progressing in diving education they are not professional courses.[4][5][6] However many professional courses would expect a participant to have progressed to that level in the recreational diving before becoming a professional.

Professional public safety diving courses

A diver wearing a dry suit skidding on the ice surface, on a special platform, at night.
Nesconset FD Scuba rescue team surface ice rescue training

For this purpose, diving training agencies such as Emergency Response Diving International (ERDI), the National Academy of Police Diving (NAPD), and Team Lifeguard Systems have developed special courses to train divers on how to safely respond to these situations.[7][8][9]

The National Academy of Police Diving (NAPD) was formed in 1988 by a group of police divers to create a national standard for police and public safety diver training and certification.[10] It has helped provide training for police officers, fire departments, military divers, and environmental investigators in the following locations: North America, Central America, Russia, Australia, and the Caribbean.

Public safety diving equipment

Companies like OMS and Zeagle, through the special requirements of public safety diving, have developed products specific for the task such as the OMS chemically resistant BCs, for diving in polluted water or HAZMAT conditions and Zeagle’s SAR and 911 variation of their Ranger model BCD that have features like harness for helicopter lifts and swift-water work.[11][12]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Stanton, Gregg (2003). "Underwater Crime Scene Investigations (UCSI), a New Paradigm". In: SF Norton (ed). 2003. Diving for Science...2003. Proceedings of the American Academy of Underwater Sciences (22nd annual Scientific Diving Symposium). Retrieved 12 June 2012.
  2. ↑ Cocozza, Joe (2002). "NYPD SCUBA". Retrieved 12 June 2012.
  3. 1 2 http://www.wateroperations.com/sortie/issue2/article11.htm
  4. ↑ http://www.padi.com/scuba/padi-courses/diver-level-courses/view-all-padi-courses/rescue-diver/default.aspx
  5. ↑ http://www.tdisdi.com/wpsite/sdi/get-certified/Rescue-Diver-Course/
  6. ↑ http://www.naui.org/specialty_courses.aspx#040
  7. ↑ http://www.tdisdi.com/wpsite/erdi/get-certified/erdi-course-options/
  8. ↑ http://napdonline.com/course-description-catalog/
  9. ↑ http://teamlgs.com/training-programs/
  10. ↑ "NAPD: About us". National Academy of Police Diving. Retrieved 12 June 2012.
  11. ↑ http://www.omsdive.com/bc-chem.html
  12. ↑ http://www.zeagle.com/showproducts/4/specialized-bcs/
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