What was once considered a part-time role with minimal requirements, today’s public safety divers are routinely called upon to enter water that is often totally dark, full of obstacles that can trap or snare, and likely contaminated with hazardous or biological materials, all to locate objects or deceased victims and remove those items from the water.
Along with these necessary skills, public safety dive teams and their administrators are required to ensure their team is operating according to applicable law and regulations (OSHA and NFPA), within the confines of well-prepared operating guidelines, and currently meeting the required yearly guidelines established by OSHA/NFPA. Failure to do so risks divers being injured or killed, substantial fines, and/or civil liability.
As a leading Public Safety Dive Training Center and sought-after consulting team, we continually strive to offer the highest degree of practical training and guidance for Public Safety Dive Teams built on real world command and operational experience in demanding dive conditions across North America.
“Tim is an extraordinary PSD team leader and has an incite that comes from building off a diving accident into a productive and respectable dive team. If you are building or rebuilding a team, he offers some great concepts based on the reality of what his team was able to overcome and accomplish. “ Mark Phillips – PSDmonthly
Our Experience Is Your Greatest Advantage
- Five decades of combined public safety dive experience in every environment and weather condition imaginable, with every objective from rescue and body recovery to criminal evidence collection and ship hull inspections.
- Experience operating at the request of multiple agencies such as the FBI, Port Authority of NY/NJ Police Dept. the US Coast Guard, and even ran an operation for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
- Over 120 years of combined public safety experience in the fields of firefighting, technical rescue, law enforcement and public safety diving.
- Over 60 years of combined recreational and technical diving including offshore wreck diving, deep diving beyond 200 feet, and multi-gas decompression diving.
- More than three decades of incident command and administration experience including personnel management, record management and control, navigating purchasing bodies, fleet maintenance, budget control and multi-year repair/replace programs.
- Over a decade of experience training and certifying divers across the United States and Canada.
- Restructuring multiple Public Safety Dive Teams, and forming a regional task force comprised of multiple teams.
- Designed and Own Divecodes https://divecodes.com ,the next level of dive team reporting and accountability.
Most importantly, we offer you our experience of living a team’s worst nightmare: a diver injury and subsequent OSHA investigation that nearly crippled one of our public safety dive teams. The Standard Operating Guideline document born out of this event has now been vetted by multiple lawyers, prosecutors, and insurance agencies, and is in use by nearly 20 teams nationwide.
“The Ringwood Dive Team has worked with NEPSD for a number of years and beyond the Standardized Public Safety Dive training that we have received, it has been an eye opener on how lacking our documentation was. This included a major rewrite of our SOGs, Dive reports, equipment maintenance records and our incomplete personnel files. NEPSD has been instrumental in keeping our team up to date on the varied NFPA and OSHA changes as they are made. “
Louis Schnibbe, Chief, Ringwood Underwater Search & Recovery
Our promise to you is simple: Guidance based on what we know and have lived, with no agenda or purpose other than helping your team succeed.
Consultation Program Tiers That Meet Your Needs
TIER 1: Initial Consult
This (4 Hour) Tier is an in-person or virtual meeting (your choice). During this meeting we will review your teams SOG/SOP, Equipment, Operational Procedures, Certifications, record keeping, and training programs that are in place. After this meeting you will be provided a comprehensive report with recommendations on which areas your team can improve, and/or any significant potential problems. This is the first step to establish a working plan of your team’s ability and a realistic view of current level of operation.
TIER 2: Equipment Program
This Tier must be completed in-person and takes approximately six hours. We will review all your equipment in-depth (operational ability, service life, quality, etc.) and go over what is required by NFPA and institute a plan that helps you meet those goals to stay compliant. We will also work with you on establishing an equipment maintenance schedule, and/or future purchase plans to keep the team moving forward. Note: We do not sell equipment at all and any recommendations we provide are based on our own experience with that gear. We do not receive any compensation from equipment manufacturers for these recommendations. If you’re a customer of Divevecodes and have the equipment module https://divecodes.com/?page_id=1217 we will assist you in populating the module.
TIER 3: Training Program
This Tier must be completed in-person and takes approximately six hours. It is designed to assess your team’s current training program and/or current capabilities according to certifications and industry standards. We will help institute a digital platform to maintain training records and also establish a drill schedule that meets your team’s needs. From there, we will provide a report that outlines deficiencies and a recommended plan to help you meet your goals and meet/exceed required standards.
TIER 4: Procedure Program
This (8-10 hour) tier is all about the procedure, we will dive into your SOG/SOP and rewrite them with you to meet the NFPA standards along with your teams current and future needs. We will put a record keeping program in place to meet your teams operational goals that go along with your SOG/SOP. We will show you how to establish a dive operation plan and how to effectively implement an emergency action plans. This tier is designed to take your operational and diver safety to the next level, We pride ourselves on safety and after this tier you will understand why you should as well.
TIER 5: Field Operations Program
This Tier must be completed in-person and takes approximately eight hours. To assess your team’s current operational procedures, we will accompany you to the field to evaluate how your team approaches setting up and executing a dive operation. We apply the rules of the NFPA to institute structure and safety to your dive operation. The goal of every dive operation is that “Everyone Comes Home”, These procedures will help your team reach that goal on every operation. This tier takes what your team currently considers as an operation to the next level. Its designed to provide the tools necessary to operate professionally while staying within your team limits. Divecodes field operation module https://divecodes.com/?page_id=1201 can guarantee your team operates at the next level !
TIER 6: ANNUAL NFPA / SOG & SOP UPDATES:
This Tier can be added to any other tier and provides your team with the on-going updates within the industry. You will get a report of NFPA updates as they come out and this also includes updating your SOG/SOP to follow the NFPA updates. This is an annual fee collected at the beginning of each year. Failure to make payment will result in this tier being stopped.
TIER 7: THE FULL ANNUAL PACKAGE:
This tier includes all of tiers 2 thru 6 and is designed for the serious teams that want to be professional and will help guarantee your team’s all-around success while staying compliant, It is designed to be your team’s support system for your first year operating with new policies and procedures. We will be just a phone call away during your operations and we will be a part of team debriefs to help you improve. We will also provide an (8 Hour) consult to review the progress of your team and if you’re working towards your goals correctly. This session must be scheduled within one year after the first year of service that this tier provides.
After your first year of meeting standards, we will also work with you to get your team registered with the National Counter-Improvised Explosive Device Capabilities Analysis Database (NCCAD). This program helps get your team listed with FEMA and helps get funding for training and equipment. Your team needs to meet some minimum standards which our program will help guide you to meet. More info can be found on their website: nccad.dhs.gov
Our tiers allow you to customize a program that fits your team’s needs, please contact us for more information and pricing.
” Northeast Public Safety Divers, what can we say other then amazing. From the first time I spoke with Tim about signal cards to when his team walked into our doors and completely changed our complete team operations. For the better. Our team was stuck hard in a rut and weren’t sure where to go. After talking with NEPSD and realizing we had a lot in common we knew we had the right company to gets use on track. They helped us work from literally the ground up. But they didn’t just stop after the last day of Class. They became family and we speak with them on a regular bases. I know as a Team Leader i am always texting or emailing Tim about something. The knowledge and experience they have and share is simple the best. But they also don’t forget that they are students themselves. If you want to operate at the best and proper level these guys and gals are the team you need. We are proud to call them family.”
Scott M. Krakowski –FF/EMT/PSD– Special Operations Team Leader – Hightstown Engine Co # 1