Wednesday
August 20, 1997
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JSO Dive Team Quits
In a water rescue--they are often our lifesavers---but the Jacksonville sheriff's dive team--claims their dives ARE dangerous. In a resignation letter.. team members say local waters contain "hazardous waste"... which put their health in "extreme jeopardy".. they demand new equipment. The sheriff department's response.. [CG:3RD\John Gordon/UnderSheriff \JACKSONVILLE SHERIFF'S OFFICE] <10:57:16 WHEN YOU READ THE LETTER, IT SOUNDS MORE LIKE A MUTINY OR AN INSURRECTION AT ANY ATTEMPT TO ATTAIN EQUIPMENT. AND I THINK THE INTENT OF IT MAY BE MORE TO EMBARRASS THE SHERIFF THAN TO OBTAIN ANY NECESSARY EQUIPMENT.> Are rescue divers' claims of a diving danger---legitimate threats-- or a ploy to get better equipment.. Whatever you believe---one thing is sure. This evening, one police dive squad is out.. replacements are in.. The public's safety seems secure--but the question remains--Is a plunge into local waters safe for rescue workers??? IT'S DESIGNED TO TRAP A THIN LAYER OF WATER AGAINST THE DIVERS SKIN. [CG:3RD\Midtown\] Water full of contaminants, according to several reports Officer Greg DiFranza and other former members of the dive team have studied. DiFranza showed us the wet suits given to them by the Sheriff's Office, and says they're not safe enough. [Effects:SOT]{ - - SOT - - } [CG:3RD\Officer Greg DiFranza\FORMER DIVE TEAM MEMBER] T.2 11:10:55 MOST OF OUR CONCERNS HAVE TO DO WITH CREEKS, TRIBUTATIES, RETENTIONPONDS, CONSTRUCTION SITES, THAT DON'T HAVE A REGULAR FLOW. (cover rest w/diving) NOT ONLY HAVE THE POLUTANTS THAT WASH IN THERE, DIVERS HAVE TO GO IN THERE DIVERS HAVE NO FACE/ SKIN PROTECTION FROM THAT CONTACT. [Effects:SOT]{ - - SOT - - } [CG:3RD\Joy Purdy\POLICE REPORTER] STAND-UP: THIS IS A WET SUIT, WHAT DiFRANZA WAS TALKING ABOUT... AS YOU CAN SEE, IT HAS NO SEALANT INSIDE, SO WATER CAN SEEP RIGHT THROUGH. THIS IS A DRY SUIT...IT DOES HAVE A SEALANT, AND IT COVERS YOUR ENTIRE BODY, FROM YOUR NECK, ALL THE WAY DOWN TO YOU FEET. (track) Complete with a protective mask, hood and gloves, no water can penetrate the dry suit. DiFranza says he sent the team's concens along with a request for dry suits through the proper channels 6 months ago, and claims he got no response.... The administration says, it never saw the paperwork, and doesn't think a mass resignation is the answer. 11:02:17 BITE: GORDON - IT'S A VERY INAPPROPRIATE WAY TO HANDLE SOMETHING LIKE THAT IF YOUR AGENDA IS SIMPLY TO GET BETTER EQUIPMENT. (track) Undersheriff John Gordon says a NEW volunteer diving team is waiting in the wings to take their place...
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Police dive team quits in safety issue dispute
Protection in tainted water an issue in resignations
By Sean Gardiner
The 10 former dive team members, who remain on the police force, said in a memo to Jacksonville Sheriff's Office superiors that they decided to stop diving because the department ignored their requests for protective SCUBA equipment at a time when the city's waterways have become dangerously contaminated.
On the heels of that announcement, the police union filed a grievance yesterday on behalf of the officers, who search underwater for bodies, automobiles and other evidence.
''It is at a point where it's become a serious health hazard to the officers,'' said John Pialorsi, business agent for the Fraternal Order of Police lodge in Jacksonville.
But Undersheriff John Gordon called the resignations a ''misguided'' political ploy,not an effort to obtain safer equipment.
''It sounds to me like they're trying to embarrass the sheriff,'' said Gordon, who received the resignations yesterday.
In a letter to dive team members accepting their resignations, Gordon went further, calling their decision to step down all at once was ''deplorable'' and likening it to a ''mutiny against our community.'' He said replacement divers already have been lined up.
The resignations don't affect the officers' jobs with the Sheriff's Office.
The dive team, like the SWAT team and other specially trained squads, is made up of officers who volunteer for extra duty, Gordon said.
Dive team members use their own equipment and only receive extra pay if called in for overtime.
''The likelihood of a member becoming ill or in contact with hazardous material, and the effects being cumulative, has reached the stage where the team no longer wishes to place themselves in a position such as this,'' the eight divers and two boat operators on the squad wrote in an Aug. 14 letter to Sgt. Roger Huggins, the former supervisor of the Dive/Rescue SCUBA Team.
Huggins was replaced yesterday as dive team supervisor by Assistant Chief Mark Bowen.
Pialorsi said in March the dive team members requested two new ''dry'' diving suits - which ensure water doesn't come in contact with the skin - and materials detailing decontamination procedures. The request, he said, was ''reduced to writing and sent up the chain of command but never acted on.''
Gordon said dive team members asked Chief Michael Edwards about the equipment and were told to provide a written request for it. But he said they never followed up.
Had the officers followed the proper procedure for requesting new equipment it probably would've been approved, Gordon said.
Local divers said dry suits can run from $550 to $2,000. The dry suits the Sheriff's SCUBA team listed cost about $1,000 - hardly a big ticket item for police equipment, Gordon said.
''The concept that we didn't do it because we couldn't afford it is silly,'' he said.
In their resignation letter, dive team members cited numerous Times-Union articles about water contamination around Jacksonville and a study conducted by Officer Gregory DiFranza on the amount of time divers spent in contaminated water over a 3 1/2 year period.
Gordon said as far as he knows, no dive team member has ever gotten sick from contaminated water in the squad's 20-plus year history.
Chad Nigh, a diver with Lewis Diving and Salvage Inc., said over the past 3 1/2 years he has been hired to dive in waterways around Jacksonville for various inspections. He said dry suits are used during the winter and when diving in known contaminated areas, like water sewage plants. But most of the time, local divers don't use them, he said.
''Pretty much all of the dive companies around town just use [cotton] coveralls or wet suits depending on the weather,'' said Nigh.
Perry Kespohl, a senior underwater bridge supervisor for the state Department of Transportation, said the department has top-of-the-line dry suits. But he said they only use the suits when diving in waters identified as dangerously polluted.
Pialorsi said he expects the grievance to be heard by Sheriff Nat Glover or a representative within the week. He said all members of the dive team are eager to rejoin if the sheriff agrees to purchase the safer equipment.
That, however, may not be an option.
Gordon said by mid-morning yesterday that police officials had ''five or six'' certified divers from the department's ranks lined up as replacements.
Two dive team members who resigned were taken off their regular marine patrol duties yesterday and put back in street patrol, Pialorsi said.
''That sounds like weak retaliation to me,'' he said. ''We'll be taking that up with the sheriff also.''
Times-Union staff writer
The entire Jacksonville police dive team has quit the voluntary squad in a dispute over safety equipment that the undersheriff called ''mutiny against our community.''