Page 6 - Aug Sept 2016

Michael Bery: Master Underwater Criminal Investigator Instructor Trainer

Michael Berry: My team provides a wide variety of services ranging from scuba
search and recovery, land search and rescue, swift water rescue and emergency

medical support. We have had the honor of participating in many important
recovery operations including the FBI’s Anthrax Diving Operations and the Virginia
Tech Shooting.

Sonya Trippett: During the time you were working with the Virginia State Police

you started your company UCI, Underwater Criminal Investigators. Please tell us
about UCI and what is it that you do?

Michael Berry: Shortly after joining the State Police, I joined their dive team and
starting learning police diving. Older divers showed me what they had learned over
the years and I eventually started teaching younger state police divers what I’d

learned. I eventually became a scuba instructor and another police department asked
me to teach their divers what I was teaching to ours. I checked around the country

to see what police dive training was available and saw that there was no training
company that specialized in teaching police diving techniques. So, in 1987 I created
UCI- Underwater Criminal Investigators and quickly became the leader in this field.

The idea was simple, to conduct criminal investigations underwater however,

to accomplish it was a little tougher. It meant I had to establish underwater
investigative techniques that would adhere to the same establish investigative

requirements land investigators adhere to, just do them underwater, in limited or no
visibility, in cold water and while you have a limited amount of air.

So basically, UCI trains police, fire, and rescue divers as well as military and

commercial divers from around the world in how to conduct underwater criminal
investigations. We make UCI Divers.

Sonya Trippett: What is involved with performing Underwater Criminal

Investigations and what type of training and/or certifications do you have to get to
be able to do this job?

Michael Berry: Underwater Criminal Investigations is basically conducting an

underwater search for evidence and once the evidence has been located, follow the

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