CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — As summer begins, our focus turns to water as we enjoy the many lakes and beaches the Coastal Bend has to offer.
3NEWS spoke with three officers who've been able to combine their passion for helping others all while doing what they love best, being near the water.
Courtney Miller, a Corpus Christi native, is a member of the Corpus Christi Police Search and Recovery Dive Team. She recently assisted in recovering the body of a woman from a pickup truck who'd driven off the Port A jetties back in April.
"It is sort of disheartening that we had to lose somebody and we had to recover somebody that has passed away," Miller said. "We feel for the families of that individual."
Miller and another Dive Team member, Hadley Davis, say they were water babies and grew up enjoying activities in the Coastal Bend.
"I've been swimming since I was about two years old, so I've always been in love with the water," Miller said.
Davis said a personal experience she had with an officer when she was young help lead her towards the dive team once she decided to join law enforcement.
"It was an experience I had with an officer when I was in elementary school that kind of shaped that," Davis said. "He was there protecting a teacher at the school at the time and just always said hi. It left a mark."
Dive Team member Lt. Erica Gonzalez said she wanted to try everything.
"I was part of the dive team for about seven years, I joined that because I wanted something that was challenging," Gonzalez said. "We have our patrol and then we also can do different things on the side like SWAT, Dive Team, things like that, so I like the water. I like something different like a challenge so I chose Dive Team."
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"The sad, albeit necessary job of recovering bodies is only a small part of the Dive Team's duties and shouldn't stop anyone with desires to serve our community," she said. "It's not just morbid or it's not just having to see somebody that's deceased. It's also fun that goes in it. There's a lot of training and there's just a lot of camaraderie that goes on with it, so it's not just seeing death or seeing bad things, you know there's also good in what we do."
Although you will be trained by police if you want to join the Dive Team, there are at least three dive schools in the area where you can start your journey of being an experienced scuba diver.
One dive school owner told 3NEWS they have more local students than tourists who join their programs.