PANAMA CITY — Local law enforcement officials and educators celebrated Thursday what they believe is a first of its kind partnership to create a marine criminal investigation team.
U.S. Rep. Steve Southerland, R-Panama City, joined officials from Florida State University Panama City, the Bay County Sheriff’s Office, the Panama City Fire Department and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission for the signing of a mutual aid agreement that officially created the Joint Agency in-Water Strike (JAWS) team.
“You’re proving today to be good stewards of the resources you have,” Southerland said. “And part of those resources is knowledge.”
Creators said the needs and abilities of the various partners were perfectly complimentary. The school has the equipment but not the staff for a team like JAWS, which specializes in water-based criminal investigations. Law enforcement agencies, on the other hand, have the staff but not the equipment. Voila.
“What we primarily get out of it is access to some advanced technology that we couldn’t afford … that’s a great value to us,” Panama City Fire Chief Wayne Watts said. “What we bring to it is we have a very highly skilled and trained dive team.”
Maj. Bruce Cooper, the FWC’s regional commander for Northwest Florida, said programs like dive teams are the first things on the block when it’s time to cut budgets, and estimated it would cost $50,000 at a minimum for FWC to start its own dive team. He called the savings “phenomenal,” and he said other FWC regions are paying close attention to the partnership here with an eye toward creating similar partnerships in other areas.
“Fish and Wildlife — if it happens on the water we own it. …If it happens on the water, we’re there,” Cooper said. “Over the years we’ve tried to maintain dive teams, but the costs have been so astronomical.”
The JAWS team could be called in to do anything from find a discarded weapon, investigating an explosion at an offshore oil rig, a plane crash or diving accidents, said FSUPC Dean Ken Shaw.
“Part of what we do is not just educate students in underwater crime scene protocols … we actually assist with law enforcement in different scenarios or different incidents,” Shaw said.
Maj. Tommy Ford, who represented the BCSO at the ceremony Thursday, said the JAWS team is “probably one of the most elite dive units in the state.” Ford said he was partial to the program because he’s received training through it.
“I think this is going to be an awesome thing that we put together,” Ford said. “It’s going to increase our capabilities.”
The JAWS team is a “no cost initiative,” that has been operating in an unofficial capacity for a couple of months now, and it’s been in the planning stages much longer than that, said Mike Zinszer, FSUPC’s director of Advanced Science Dive Program. There were liability issues for each agency.
“This is way outside any university’s comfort zone to be this involved with first responders … every agency here had this initiative reviewed by lawyers,” Zinszer said. “This wasn’t taken very lightly.”
It also allows students an opportunity to apply the theories they learn in the classroom to real world situations, Zinszer said.