Support for ERDI Programs extends to NYPD

“We are very pleased to announce that New York State Police dive teams will now be following Emergency Response Diving International training protocols and standards,” Sean Harrison said today. Harrison, V-P Training and Membership Services for ERDI and the PSD organization’s sister certification agencies SDI and TDI, was speaking to the diving press from his office in Maine.

“During the past several months, we have seen a surge in interest in Public Safety Diving in general and ERDI in particular. Our PSD curriculum has received very strong endorsement from several police agencies and other public safety diving teams across North America. All eight NYSP dive teams have a record of producing results in the most trying, toughest conditions and I am personally very pleased and proud to welcome them to ERDI,” he stated.

The NYSP dive teams perform a variety of PSD tasks including victim or missing person searches, and evidence searches, typically in bodies of water near violent crime scenes often before significant leads are developed. These teams have an outstanding productivity/safety record and regularly recover weapons and/or evidence that essentially solved cases and help to put criminals behind bars.

Sergeant Alvaro Garcia, division diving officer for the New York State Police said that the extensive ERDI no-nonsense curriculum and a realistic training program that reflected the public safety diver’s need to be able to solve problems and failures without surfacing was part of the reasoning behind adopting ERDI programs.

“We are looking forward to working with ERDI and glad that this certifying agency recognizes and understands the vast difference between recreational diving and public safety diving,” Garcia explained.

Stressing the value of the right kind of education for public safety divers, Garcia explained that the conditions in which New York State Police Divers operate are way beyond the scope of the training offered by “regular” sport diving programs. “We have to operate in the worst imaginable environments and the safety of our officers is a prime concern. There is no room for error, because we have an abundance of deep water, dark water and swiftly-moving water In New York State. There is no room for a training program that fails to identify and help fix any weaknesses in our dive teams.”

ERDI is a proven PSD education and support program available to diving professionals and dive retailers as well as to existing PSD teams. It delivers the right programs for the New York State Police, could it be right for you?

Contact Cris Merz (cris.merz@tdisdi.com) or visit website (https://www.911responsediver.com/) for more details.

Join ERDI at the PSD workshop at Beneath the Sea, in Meadowlands, NJ on Friday, March 26 at the Holiday Inn across the street from the Show from 9:30 until 5 pm