A day in the life of the...Police National Dive Squad
Inhabiting the murky depths of unknown places is all in a day’s work for members of the Police National Dive Squad.
However, Officer-in-Charge, Bruce Adams said combing through territory, which may harbour vital evidence or watery graves, is all part of that work.
“It’s definitely a job which offers many challenges, so a lot of motivation is needed.” He said the squad’s divers got to see many places others didn’t, which meant they often found themselves in situations outside most people’s comfort zones.
“We have worked in all kinds of different areas, including Huka Falls (Taupo), hydro dams and the Chatham Islands.”
Challenging work
One of the more unusual places the squad has dived was a recent call-out to a thermal pool in Rotorua.
“We were called there after a body had been found near the pool. However, the weapon - a knife - had yet to be located. So it was our job to search the pool for the knife,” Mr Adams told Police News.
Mr Adams said the job had taken two days of careful planning, due to the acidity of the pool.
“Our tests found that the acidity of the water was comparable to the acid of the stomach, so we had to be careful.”
Time limit
“We limited the time spent in the pool to 20 minutes and had an on-site pool built by the fire brigade so we could test the dive equipment to make sure it was leak-proof.”
Mr Adams described jobs like this as “uncomfortable” and “not much fun”, but said the motivation to find what you were searching for always kept the team on task. “As our job is focused on recovery, it can be mentally draining. However, we do have systems in place which make sure our staff are well looked after in this area.”
Although there were difficult aspects of the job, Mr Adams said there were “incredibly rewarding” parts as well.
Finding closure
“Like when you are able to recover a body quickly and return it to the family. People are always so grateful for this because it offers them some sort of closure.” Overcoming challenges such as depth, lack of visibility and isolation to find what they are looking for is another rewarding aspect.
These factors, coupled with the support members received from outside groups and the range of people they meet during journeys, which take them all over New Zealand, was another great motivator for squad members.
Mr Adams singled out finding the bodies of the people who lost their lives when the Kotuku sank in Foveaux Straight in 2006, finding the body of the pilot after his Corvair crashed into the sea off the Kapiti Coast in 2003 and the recovery of the bodies which were on board the vintage Fouga Magister jet, which crashed in Thames in 2004, as career highlights.
“In all of these cases, there were several obstacles we had to overcome, so to achieve what we set out to do was incredibly rewarding,” Mr Adams said.
Specialist equipment
Mr Adams cites access to specialist diving equipment as being paramount in dealing with the unexpected. It has allowed members of the squad to retrieve objects and bodies from what would previously have been inaccessible places.
“There have been huge advances in the equipment we use over the last 30 years and most of the stuff we use nowadays is commercial and is brought in from overseas.”
These include numerous technical tools, such as sonar, video and camera equipment, as well as contaminated-water, deep-water and confined-area equipment.
Part of the job involves sometimes having to take video footage of bodies in the sea or river to give doctors at autopsies an accurate view of how the body was found so that their job may be easier.
Sometimes the O/C of a case also views such footage, especially where fatal vehicle crashes into water occur. This helps preserve the chain of evidence even though the vehicle may be removed from the water.
If the O/C of such a case is on hand, this can be done on the spot by the relaying of live video footage from the diver to those on shore.
Frequent call-outs
Being the National Dive Squad, the team is available 24/7, which means that during busy periods they can be called to jobs up to three times a week. Sometimes squad members can be on the road for a fortnight.
Last year, the squad completed 60 jobs. The previous year they were called out to 100. “We are lucky enough to have the resources to get to anywhere in the country in a short space of time,” Mr Adams said.
A good rapport with Air New Zealand, other civilian air charter operators and the Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) aids the squad in getting them where they have to be in a hurry.
“They are all great because we also have a lot of equipment we need to bring with us. Obviously, at times, our job can be quite time sensitive so, without their help, it would make our job just that much more difficult,” Mr Adams said.
