[photo above] Maritime Emergency Response Team and Lakewood’s Water Rescue Team is all about safety!!

Lakewood’s WRT  provides the ability to respond to boater/swimmers in distress, search for missing persons, recover evidence in the towns numerous waterways, on-site and active for Lakewood’s annual firework event. The unit is comprised of 10 members, Sgt. M. Young (Team Leader) , Sgt. T. D’Elia, Ptl. A. Pedre, Ptl. J. Yahr, Ptl. Sandstrom, Ptl. J. Spagnuolo, Ptl. M. Dennis, Ptl. S. Meyer, Ptl. A. Letts and Ptl. T. Distefano.

The WRT periodically trains in class room settings and In-Water scenarios to better prepare themselves for the unavoidable and/or life threatening situations.  The WRT training simulates various exercises to review basic rescue techniques and familiarization with incident specific equipment for deployment.

Team Leader Sgt. M. Young says his team is very fortunate to be trained by William Fancher, the Commander of water operations (Maritime Emergency Response Team Dive Supervisor) MERT, a Training Consultant for the Maritime security, Public Safety, and Firearms industries. He is also a Police Academy PTC Certified Instructor, MEB Instructor and Firearms Instructor.