NCJ Number
164921
Journal
Gazette Volume: 58 Issue: 7 & 8 Dated: (July/August 1996) Pages: 2-4
Date Published
1996
Length
3 pages
Annotation
This article describes the proceedings of the Sixth International Police Diver Symposium held in Hamilton, Ontario (Canada), on September 15-17, 1995, with open-water exercises conducted in Hamilton Harbour at the Canada Centre for Inland Waters.
Abstract
More than 150 delegates from 56 organizations in six countries attended this biannual 3-day event. It included 2 days of seminars and 1 day of open-water exercises and demonstrations. On the first day, speakers addressed performance-based training, the RAF Nimrod air crash recovery in Lake Ontario, and the factors that predispose public safety divers to injury. Other lectures focused on procedures for mass disaster victim recoveries, the preparation of the police diver for commercial aviation water disasters, and operational combat diving. The latter was an introduction to the tactical assault scenario that was performed the following day as part of the open-water demonstrations; this involved a tactical assault to neutralize a simulated terrorist attack. Other demonstrations involved rescue divers being deployed to rescue a victim floating in the harbor and the use of the Billy Pugh net to hoist a diver from the water to the safety of the helicopter. The next day, delegates attended more seminars. Topics addressed in the seminars included problems encountered during the recovery of a fatal train wreckage, emergency oxygen administration at dive sites, the dynamics of a school bus sinking in water, marine support in drug interdiction, and police diving operations in Northern Ireland after the recent peace accord.