Marine Patrol & Dive Team
The Marine Services Unit is responsible for patrolling the waters adjacent Milford. The unit patrols an area of about 40 square miles in Long Island Sound and the Housatonic River. The unit has evolved over the years from 2 officers using their own dive gear and boats in the 1960's to the fully-equipped unit it is today.
The unit operates with 1 main patrol boat a 23 foot center-console boat as well as a number of smaller boats. Although the unit is active primarily during the boating season, they remain available year-round for emergencies.
Although the job the Marine Unit might seem unusual, it isn't. Officers assigned to the unit investigate the same types of calls as do patrol officers on land. Speeding, operating under the influence, burglaries, and larcenies occur both on land and on the water. Only the method of transportation these officers use while on patrol is different.
Our boats have several radios to communicate with Headquarters, the Coast Guard and other boaters.The patrol boats are equipped with a wide array of equipment such as RADAR, LORAN and GPS devices which are used for navigation, as well as the usual miscellaneous equipment found on most boats.
Officers in the unit work closely with the United States Coast Guard, Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection, and other local police agencies around Long Island Sound to offer the boater as safe an environment as possible.
It might seem like a nice way to spend a summer day and it is, but spend the night with the officers looking for a disabled boater in the middle of a thunderstorm and you quickly find out that every silver cloud has a dark lining.
Besides their regular duties operating on Long Island Sound and the Housatonic River, members of the unit act as a water rescue squad. When storms hit the city threatening residents and their houses with flooding, members of the unit evacuate people from their homes.
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