Austin police special ops dive team prepares for underwater crime scenes

APD dive team prepares for underwater crime scenes

The Austin police dive team is prepared as more people hit the water this summer

AUSTIN, Texas - The Austin Police Department Dive Team is prepared as more people hit the water this summer.

Austin Police Special Ops Dive Team

The backstory:

"It's rare that we don't find what we're looking for," Austin police sergeant Issa Kafena said.

The search underwater is much different than the search above.

"Diving is actually the most dangerous job that we do just based on the risks that are inherent in diving, whether it be decompression issues or hazards underwater, things like that," Sgt. Kafena said. "You can’t normally see two or three inches in front of your face, so you are feeling with your hands."

The Austin Police Special Ops Dive Team is trained for underwater missions. They are deployed when the depths of the water become a crime scene.

"We go to Lady Bird Lake, we go to Lake Austin, and a lot of creeks and less than clean places to go to look for where somebody might have thrown a gun or a machete or some type of weapon that was in a violent crime," Sgt. Kafena said.

When a rescue mission turns into a recovery mission, police take over.

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"The lake unit has sonar, so that's when we work together, and they'll usually like it, especially if it's a body. They will go and run their own search patterns and try to find something that may look like it may be what we're looking for, and then they'll mark it with what's called a peanut buoy and that's where we will set our divers and set our initial search pattern," Sgt. Kafena said.

Then the divers plunge into the water.

"We use full-faced masks that have calm communication ability, so we're able to talk to each other sometimes when we have divers in the water. We are trained on dry suits as well as wetsuits, so that helps us with places that may have more environmental hazards or that are, like I said, less clean, right, but also they would help if we have a winter dive or where the weather is colder," Sgt. Kafena said.

As summer approaches, Kafena said his team of 12 is ready.

"We're always ready for it. It's a state of perpetual readiness," Sgt. Kafena said.

They train two to three times a month.