EXCLUSIVE: The NT Police can no longer conduct diving search and rescue operations – such as retrieving people’s bodies – because Water Police Unit divers have either transferred or quit, or been the subject of disciplinary action, sources have told the NT Independent.

An ongoing lack of training is also partly to blame for why a recently drowned man’s body could not be recovered in a timely manner, with officials forced to wait for it to decompose enough to rise to the surface, sources have said.

On Monday, NT Police media manager Rob Cross stated in a press release that officers and NT Emergency Services had been searching for the man last Saturday afternoon and Sunday, using foot patrols, a drone, and a boat equipped with sonar capability at Fish Hole waterhole west of Alice Springs, before police were told the man’s body had been discovered on Monday morning.

Multiple well-placed sources have spoken to the NT Independent about the matter on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution by the NT Police executive.

Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker has banned the NT Independent from asking questions of the police force, which is against their official transparency guidelines, and in June, announced this paper was under investigation for how it obtained information that exposed massive police executive failings in a series of articles.

The sources have told the NT Independent there were no police divers at the attempt to retrieve the body at Fish Hole waterhole, and NT Police had to wait until the body decomposed enough to float to the surface.

They said four members of the Water Police Unit were subject to an investigation by Professional Standards Command in August for “failing to report inappropriate comments” in a Facebook messenger group chat, which included an alleged “sexist and racist” comment.

Two were issued a Section 79 notice for breach of discipline, cautioned and transferred out of the section, while one officer resigned before any disciplinary action could be taken, and another is yet to be served.

The two who were transferred had Part II dive qualifications, and were also dive medics, while the other person, who was responsible for the offending message, and had just qualified to dive, had quit.

The sources said this had left one qualified diver in the squad, but the diver has no on-the-job experience. There is also a dive supervisor, but they were not available at the time of the Alice Springs rescue.

“From that point on from August, police had zero capability to respond to any incident requiring a dive response,” one source said.

“They have no ability to run a dive operation with only one qualified diver left.

“Can you imagine if that was your brother, and you were sitting on the side of the waterhole and police tell you they can’t do anything?

“Effectively, management are flying by the seat of their pants, hoping a dive job doesn’t come up because they don’t have anyone who can do it.”

The sources said NT Police needed at least three divers for a rescue dive, and up to five depending on the conditions and how long it would take.

There are four NT Police dive supervisors in NT Police in total, with the other three working in non-diving roles in other parts of the police force, and could be working in remote areas or on a shift at any time, so they would probably not be available at short notice, the sources said.

They said there were also a few other police officers working in general duties, who come from a commercial diving background, but are not trained for police diving.

The NT Police’s policy is not to hire civilian commercial divers to do body recovery operations because of the potential for trauma, but also because of the unique conditions police work in, sometimes with zero visibility, one source said.

That source said police had hired civilian dive supervisors previously because in that role they would not need to be present at the time the body was recovered.

But currently they only have one diver in a dedicated diver role, who has no operational experience, and NT Police are not conducting any regular training divers, they said. It costs about $35,000 to train a diver, with the course taking about seven weeks, and about $4,000 every two years to keep dive medics qualified.

“The unit has been shut down, they do not have the capability to conduct dives in the Water Police anymore,” that source said.

“There was always a struggle to get enough divers, with about six being the minimum required for the unit. And people would often come in from leave to dive.

“It was a knee-jerk reaction [the transfers], and police have lost a very specialist capability that took a long time to build up.

“I feel for the relatives of the people who go missing in the water because their recovery is not going to be as swift as it should be.

“It is probably one of the most dangerous things you can do. And who wants to crawl around in the mud in black water looking for a body by hand?

“Not everyone wants to do it, and not everybody can do it. You have to be really fit and healthy.”

Mr Cross did not respond to questions from the NT Independent about the current diving capability of the NT Police or about the disciplinary action.

Punishment for alleged ‘serious breaches of discipline’ for involvement in private chat group

A Facebook messenger group made up of about seven members of the Water Police Unit had existed since at least November, multiple sources have told the NT Independent.

But it was shut down in January after one officer allegedly made a “sexist and racist” comment about a colleague. He was chastised for this by the group a few days later, and the message group was shut down, sources have said.

“There were no further comments, no further group chats created,” one source said.

“The chat was used for banter amongst friends, photos of fishing, and remote work they were doing, and general chat about work, and other colleague’s work performance.

“But one bloke went too far and said something sexist and racist.

“They had no intention for the chat to go public.

The NT Independent understands there was some venting about other colleagues in the group, and some other offensive terms used.

The sources said the Unit’s officer-in-charge Senior Sergeant Sandy Mellon took over the unit in July and was told by some members they suspected there had been a group chat they were not included in.

“She actively sought to be provided with copies of these private group chats,” one source said.

“Eventually one of them crumbled to her pressure and gave it to her.

“The transfer was done in August, and they have done nothing to rectify it.

“They took this action without a thought about the responsibilities and the capabilities of the Water Police Unit.”

It is not clear why three of the officers in the chat were not facing disciplinary action, and Mr Cross did not provide an explanation, but a source said the officer who had been in the chat and provided the messages to management is still in the unit.