Olympia to join Lacey and Sheriff’s office on Thurston County’s region-wide Dive Rescue Team

Thurston County’s Board of County Commissioners (BoCC) approved an Interlocal Agreement between the Thurston County Sheriff's Office and the City of Olympia for mutual aid involving the county’s Dive Rescue Team yesterday.

Thurston County’s Dive Rescue Team is the region's only organized search and rescue team.

“Lewis County, Mason County, and Grays Harbor County rely on our dive team several times a year to recover drowned people,” Operations Chief Ruben Mancillas said.

The current 13-person rescue team comprises Thurston County sheriff’s deputies, Lacey Police officers, and Lacey firefighters., with Olympia now set to join their ranks.

“The Sheriff's Office maintains the Dive Rescue Team. Lacey Police Department [is] a member of our county, as well as Lacey Fire Department. They all have similar agreements. The agency itself will maintain or purchase the equipment needed,” Mancillas said.

“The county maintains the bigger items like robots and things that we purchase, but for the normal dive team equipment and overtime, training time-- that will be incurred by the City of Olympia,” Mancillas added.

Mancillas also mentioned that the Dive Team has responded to calls from Olympia and recovered drowning victims from several of its lakes.

“With that happening, the City of Olympia said, ‘Hey, we want to support this team and add a member to the Thurston County Sheriff's Office team’,” Mancillas said.

Olympia has yet to be linked with the team since its inception, and Mancillas foresees this new agreement as a positive addition to their service.

“It's a force multiplier that helps with alleviating some of that pressure from us going to different areas,” said Mancillas.

Mancillas said the team answers around 100 calls annually, with water rescue operations in the Puget Sound and Nisqually River being the most frequent scenario.

The team’s members receive training in zero visibility diving, ice diving, evidence recovery, and high/low angle rope rescue to respond to water-related events such as drownings, submerged vehicles, underwater crime scenes, and flood rescue.

BoCC with Chief Mancillas