Six Indiana Conservation Officers will become members of DNR Law Enforcement’s 47-officer team of certified dive rescue specialists that serves the entire state.
The officers will graduate on Oct. 3 from the six-week Public Safety Dive Rescue Specialist School. The new divers, with the county in which they are based, are Alexander Quick (Starke), Derrick Beamer (Porter), Matthew Porter (Vanderburgh), Jordan Wagner (Cass), Dakota Wamsley (Ripley), and Alex Toth (LaPorte).
During the demanding school, students are trained to Dive Rescue International requirements and to meet Department of Homeland Security standards, which include being able to do fully encapsulated diving with full face mask, dry suits, redundant air supply, and underwater hard- line communications.
The students were drilled on basic scuba skills, physical fitness, black-water diving, boat-based and shore-based operations/search patterns, drowning victim/body recovery, evidence recovery, light salvage operations, lift bag operations, vehicle recovery, deep diving, and swift water diving.
The school was based in Terre Haute. Training took place in various types of bodies of water throughout Vigo County.
Indiana Conservation Officers respond to and investigate drowning incidents and all other types of water-related investigations, including evidence recovery, vehicle recovery, swift-water rescues, and boat crashes.
