How many agencies that have dive teams are actually certified through a nationally certified public safety diving agency. What agency are you certified through and what was the rating?
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How many agencies that have dive teams are actually certified through a nationally certified public safety diving agency. What agency are you certified through and what was the rating?
Posted: 12/17/07 06:51:33 Post subject: Dive teams
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A few thing I would like to know.
1. Why do Police and Fire Departments have to be certified by a national organization.
2. They is no know agenies that came certified underwater crime scene tech's. In the usa.(real Crime Scene Tech's.)
3. Are you doing any underwater crime scene photography.
The only person that I know of that has been teaching and doing underwater crime scene phohotgraphy for years, just retired from the Miami Police Department Dive team. Now he is working for the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Department. If you are not teaching this you need to get in touch with him...That is a big part of underwater crime scene's.
4. If you certified dive team national wide this will have the ferderal gov. in on the action and you will have rules that some teams will not beable to meet, and you will put good teams out of diving..
you really need to think about it..
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Very good point...
I think it is for insurance purposes that they need to be publicly certified. If someone dies then at least the agency can say the diver had basic dive skills.
I would hope that all of the agencies who use Public Safety Divers insure that they are all certified and tested to dive in the types of environments they expose the divers too. There are several accredited organizations for certifying public safety divers;i.e. police fire and emt's. Departments that use a recreational diver to do recovery and rescue diving is openning itself up to serios litigation issues should the diver become injured or killed due to lack of training. Please dont reply on a guy with a mask and air tank to save your city.
As a former BSO employee, marine unit supervisor, and dive team commander, I can assure there are many valid reasons for dive teams to be certified buy an accredited national agency such as Dive Rescue International Inc. who we used. . First and foremost, the enhanced training promotes diver safety. Specific standards relating to lesson plans, hours of training, dive team physical standards, record keeping, equipment maintenance, emergency procedures etc. are all part of a successful dive team. From a legal standpoint, there are recognized industry "Standards of Care" which must be followed. Many public safety dive teams fall short in this area. Additionally , when multiple teams are trained using specific policies and procedures, they and be incorporated together in major diving scenarios which has occurred in Broward County on a number of occasions. When testifying in court and being asked what were my qualifications, it was to my advantage to testify that I was a Certified Public Safety Diver, Dive Rescue Specialist 2, Dive Rescue Specialist 1, Advanced Public Safety Diver, Public Safety Scuba Instructor and Dive Rescue Trainer. Generally attorneys moved on at that point.
The days of police dive teams conducting a few lobster dives each year as their training are long gone. If a public safety diver is injured or worse, you can bet every aspect of the dive operation will be reviewed by experts and attorneys. . Fortunately in the over twenty years I was associated with the BSO dive team, this never happened. I believe largely because of our agency support and training program.
Sgt Larry Whitford ret.