A diving unit was established in Sussex Police in 1966, at this time it was formed of a dive technician (who maintained all the kit) and officers who were stationed at various locations throughout the Force.
When a job came in that required diving capability all of the officers came together and worked on that job before returning to their respective stations.
In 1994 the Unit went full time and this meant that eight officers and the dive technician worked from a central location and were deployed as a ready made team. Over time the Unit acquired more skills and was constantly under review to see if the Unit was viable and value for money.
In 2004 the Unit underwent one such review, during which it was established that not only was the SSU effective and value for money but that it also had acquired so many skills in addition to the underwater search capability that it should be renamed the Specialist Search Unit.
These days the SSU is formed of the following members in addition to me:
- Alisdair McKell (Joined March 1988, retired in 2011 and now the civilian diving technician, nicknamed ‘Mac’)
- Roger Negus (Joined October 1989, nicknamed ‘Arf’)
- Jonathan Lelliott (Joined February 2005)
- Paul Critchfield (Joined April 2007, nicknamed ‘Critch’)
- Michelle Pearce (Joined July 2008, nicknamed ‘Moomin’)
- Bret Beresford (Joined November 2008)
- Darran Middleton (Joined November 2008)
- Paul Quinn (joined July 2011 on temporary loan fromWest Sussex)
- Rick Dugan (joined with Paul in July 2011 and a part time officer based atBrighton)
Today we are responsible for all searches where additional personal protective equipment (PPE) is required, effectively we carry out searches where other officers cannot or will not search. We work in the following environments:
- Underwater search
- Major crime searches in addition to general search
- Confined space entry and search
- Rope access and working at height
- Swift water operations (i.e. flooded areas)
- Marine operations
- Disaster victim recovery (incidents involving multiple fatalities or multiple body parts)
We are called to assist officers in any of the above scenarios, as you can imagine some jobs incorporate two or three of the skill areas. Many incidents may fit into the above criteria where a risk becomes involved and divisional officers would not be safe to continue with their task. Most of our general search jobs are pre planned (ie. searches of premises) but a majority of our work is spontaneous and we never know where we will be from one hour to the next.
As you can imagine our work reflects the fact that the World is not orderly, we are a resilient bunch and have had our fair share of not eating at all or sleeping a few hours on the office floor between jobs because we can’t get home. We have had jobs that have turned from a short deployment into a weeks work out of Force where we wished we had thrown some clean clothes in the bag before we were deployed.
Naturally we are either divorced, single or have understanding people at home! I got married soon after joining the Unit and had my fair share of domestics where there was a role reversal and my dinner ended up in the dog and I would dread having to make the phone call saying that I would be missing another dinner/family event/night at home/week, happily my husband is more accommodating these days and in most cases is understanding of what we do.
I am officially on call at least twice a month as a PolSA for the Force (there are 14 of us) but the SSU is not an ‘on call’ Unit and we work a basis of Monday to Friday shifts, having said that we do get called out of hours for specialist jobs, sadly these are usually water based fatalities or deaths where specialist search is required.
Although the SSU is not paid on call allowance we always turn out for jobs, this is out of a moral obligation as well as caring that we are the only people who may be able to give a family back their loved one who has been lost in whatever way.
Who would be able to say to a family that they should wait until 10AM on Monday morning to get their family member back? Not us, we are proud of what we are trained to do and we will do everything we can to end the anguish that relatives and friends must feel after an incident where they know that their loved one may not come back alive but need them back anyway.
