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What is public safety diving

Public safety diving is underwater work that was relegated to being performed by police and similar agencies such as firefighters and specialized search and rescue/recovery diving personnel. Public safety divers differ from recreational, scientific, and commercial divers who can generally plan the date, time, and location of a dive, and dive only if conditions are conducive to the task. Public safety divers respond to emergencies 24/7, and may be required to dive in the middle of the night, in adverse weather conditions, in zero-visibility "black water," or in contaminated by chemicals and biological risks


Public safety Divers - Buzos de seguridad pública

Specialized skills

In addition to basic diving skills training, public safety divers require specialized training to recognize hazards, perform risk assessments, search procedures, dive in zero visibility, use full masks with communication systems, and recover evidence that is admissible in the court. Some of the water they must dive in is contaminated, and they may be required to wear vulcanized dry suits, with diving helmets sealed to the suit, and use air supplied from the surface. Sometimes the decontamination process that takes place outside of the water can be longer than the immersion time

Buzo de seguridad pública- Public Safety Diver

Public Safety Diving Personnel

In the US, many public safety divers are volunteers, but law enforcement or fire rescue personnel also often take on these additional responsibilities as part of their occupation. Firefighters will find that scuba gear has similarities to full face masks and breathing apparatus used in smoke-filled environments. Law enforcement personnel are also trained as public safety divers due to their training and experience in handling evidence and presenting evidence in court.


In Colombia, how is diving for public safety?

Actually very little has been done or very few people have been trained in this area. Security forces such as firefighters, civil defense and others have received recreational diving courses, they have diving equipment that is really of little use to do public safety work such as a rescue of a person who has drowned or recovery of evidence. For this reason at Aquasub we have taken the task of training our instructors in public safety diving. Our objective is to begin training people who have the characteristics and whose goal is to support and serve the community.



What requirements are necessary for this course


  1. Must be at least 18 years of age

  2. Be a certified rescue diver (although you can start at a lower level with the Go Pro public Safety Diver PADI program

  3. Have a medical first aid course valid for no more than two years.

  4. During the training you will obtain the specialties of underwater navigation, search and recovery, dry suit, nitrox, oxygen provider, full face.

What will be seen in this course:

  1. Theory on specialized equipment for this course

  2. Management of scenarios, communications and documentation requirements

  3. On open water dives, you will practice compass location

  4. Knot making, arc search techniques

  5. Victim recovery, victim management procedures

  6. Rescue techniques for an injured public safety diver






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