Police

Underwater Recovery Unit

In 1961 the Dade County Public Safety Department’s Underwater Recovery Team (URT) was formed.  The Team was headed by Deputy Edwin Blaze Zehnder, who because of his past experience as a US Navy diver was chosen to head the Team and prepare the diver training manual.  Prior to the formation of the URT, the Department used Deputies, who as divers, volunteered their skills and equipment.  With the formation of the Team, uniform standards and training for Departmental Police Divers were then established, which helped promote diver safety.
 
Today the Underwater Recovery Unit (URU) consists of seven full time police divers, composed of one sergeant and six officers, as well as one Public Service Aide.  Each diver is assigned personal dive equipment and a marked police van and they are on call twenty-four hours a day.

The URU conducts all of the water related activities for the Miami-Dade Police Department which includes the following: search and recovery of submerged vehicles, boats, aircraft, bodies and evidence; and provides coordination with and assistance to other investigative entities, including Homeland Security, Illegal Dumping, Homicide, Robbery, Auto Theft, Insurance Fraud Unit, Environmental Investigations Unit, United States Environmental Protection Agency, United States Coast Guard, and Immigration Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE).  Additionally, the Unit provides training for MDPD Officers and other agencies by conducting the 80-hour Police Diver Course and 16-hour Hull and Seawall Search Training.

Since December 2001, the URU has participated with ICE and other agencies in “Operation Turbulent Trident”, a task force that searches for parasitic devices on the hulls of cruise ships and freighters at the Port of Miami, Port Everglades, Port of West Palm Beach, and Port of Key West.  The URU provides the majority of the training for the Miami-Dade and Broward County agencies involved in the operations.  Also, since June 2002, the URU has coordinated “Operation Safe Port”, a comprehensive security detail for the search or cruise ship and freighter hulls, seawalls, fuel barges, and both domestic and foreign Naval ships at the Port of Miami as part of the Homeland Security Initiative.

The URU also conducts numerous media interviews for local and cable channels as well as magazines promoting the Miami-Dade Police Department’s efforts in Homeland and Port Security.  Public presentations at local schools and civic organizations are routinely conducted as well.