Nottinghamshire Police's Underwater Search Unit has recently introduced a new boat to the fleet, which will be used in a range of day-to-day operations as well as emergency callouts.

The team members use their expertise to help with a number of enquiries and reports, including searching for missing people, helping those who have got into trouble in the water and also recovering items which may be important evidence for an ongoing criminal investigation.

This can often see them deployed at short notice, outside of their normal shifts and also required to be in the centre of a lake or river for a prolonged period of time.

Sporting a much larger deck than the team's current boats, it will allow the whole team to be deployed on to the water together. It also has a drop-down platform to make it easier for divers to transfer into the water and also for equipment and findings to be lifted out and recovered.

Police Constable James Patterson, one of the team's dive supervisors, said: "The new boat will be absolutely brilliant and it gives us a lot more flexibility in terms of what we can do when we're out on a dive.

"The drop-down front means that, for any recoveries we make, we don't have to use any other equipment to help us lift it out of the water, we can bring it straight on to the deck.

"In previous dives, we've had to bring out a couple of boats at a time to be able to fit the diver, the standby diver, and the other required members of the team to help each of them on the deck.

"What this boat does is it gives us an all-in-one safe platform that we can dive with and fit all our resources on, which makes life a lot easier for the likes of the dive supervisor as having everything in one place means you can communicate and work out what is going off a lot easier and a lot quicker.

"We also have the benefit of being able to get quite close to the sides of the river's edge as it is a solid, plastic boat and it is very hard-wearing, meaning we can also use it for bank searching."

Inspector Tim Ringer, of Nottinghamshire Police, said: "We are constantly looking for ways to improve our efficiency and make the most of our resources and although the boats we had were working for the team, we were aware of some options which may help us out.

"We researched for quite a while, including looking at which boats other dive teams were using and their thoughts on them, and it was this boat we now have that came back as being the most useful and the most practical for what we do. Looking at the features, I think the whole team quite quickly agreed on how beneficial this would be for us and the people we help.

"Being able to have all the resources and equipment in one place will really help the team whilst out on the water, which is a real positive for the public, those in need or in distress in the water and also loved ones who are desperate to hear any information about a loved one who is missing.

"It is really important for us to get to people and search areas as quickly, safely and thoroughly as we can, so this new resource is a very welcome addition to the team."