Public Safety & Emergency Response Diver Resources
Capt. Michael R. Ange, Ph.D.
A Specialized Discipline Requiring Specialized Expertise
Public safety diving is not recreational diving under difficult conditions. It is a distinct professional discipline with its own operational protocols, legal obligations, equipment requirements, and risk profiles — and it demands instruction and expert guidance from professionals who have actually worked in that environment.
Capt. Ange has been training public safety divers, emergency response divers, law enforcement tactical swimmers, and underwater crime scene technicians since the early 1990s. He has personally trained public safety professionals from agencies across the United States and internationally, including members of the Portuguese National Judicial Police, the Portuguese National Fire Service, Force Protection Police in Thailand, and governmental and law enforcement agencies from coast to coast.
Expert Witness & Forensic Consulting in Public Safety Diving Cases
Attorneys handling cases involving public safety diving incidents — wrongful death, equipment failure, training negligence, operational protocol disputes — require an expert who understands this discipline from the inside. Capt. Ange brings three decades of operational PSD experience, authorship of the training standards used by agencies worldwide, and nearly three decades of active expert witness case work to these engagements.
His qualifications specific to public safety diving include:
- Founding member and first International Training Director, Emergency Response Diving International (ERDI) — contributing the original training standards, curriculum, and co-authoring the founding training manual that established the agency’s program. ERDI has grown to become the world’s largest public safety diver certification agency
- Public Safety Diver Training Director, National Academy of SCUBA Educators (NASE) — during NASE’s tenure as host agency for the National Association of Police Divers
- Contributor to the development of NFPA standards governing public safety diving operations, including NFPA 1009 and NFPA 1670
- Trained public safety divers and PSD instructors from agencies in the United States, Europe, Asia, and Latin America — including active firefighters, law enforcement officers, and emergency medical personnel. Additionally served as a contracted subject matter expert for members of the United States Army Special Forces Command
- Extensive familiarity with OSHA, NFPA, and agency-specific standards governing public safety diving operations in the United States, with working knowledge of applicable regulations in the United Kingdom, multiple European Union member states, and parts of Asia
- Active expert witness in diving and maritime litigation including public safety diving incidents
Professional Training & Consulting Services
Capt. Ange remains available on a contracted basis for public safety diver training, team setup consulting, equipment selection guidance, and program development for qualified agencies and departments. These are not open enrollment courses — all programs are individually contracted to meet the specific operational requirements of the engaging agency.
Complex multi-discipline programs are delivered with carefully selected contract instructors whose qualifications match the specific requirements of each engagement.
Agencies and departments seeking contracted PSD training or consulting services are invited to contact Capt. Ange directly to discuss requirements and availability.
Why Recreational and Commercial Training Falls Short
The Rescue Diver course offered by recreational agencies was designed as a self and buddy rescue program — it was never intended to prepare public safety professionals for operational diving, and recreational agencies make no claim that it does. Recreational training is built around the decision of when not to dive. For the public safety diver that calculation is fundamentally different.
Commercial diver training is closer in scope but still fails to address the rapid deployment requirements, limited resources, and unique legal and liability exposure of the public safety diver. The equipment, the protocols, and the risk environment are simply not the same.
Public safety diving requires training specifically designed for public safety diving — by instructors who have operated in that environment.
Contact
For expert witness retention or contracted training and consulting inquiries: