LAPD opens investigation into officer's death during dive training at backyard pool

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Set us as preferred Los Angeles police and state authorities are investigating a deadly accident involving an LAPD officer who apparently drowned during a training exercise at a backyard pool in Huntington Beach, with officials looking into potential violations of safety protocols related to diving at a private residence rather than a department facility.The officer who died, Thomas Denton, served in the department’s Metropolitan Division as a diving officer.Denton may have been in the pool testing out a device known as a closed-circuit rebreather, according to two law enforcement sources who asked not to be named in order to discuss an ongoing investigation.

Such devices allow a diver to stay underwater longer by filtering their exhaled breath to remove carbon dioxide.The technology is favored by the U.S.

Navy SEALs because it allows their personnel to go undetected by preventing telltale air bubbles from surfacing.Within the LAPD, rebreathers have historically only been used by the SWAT team’s tactical diver unit, which is tasked with clandestine tasks such as sweeping boats for explosives and attaching trackers to their hulls.The Underwater Dive Unit — of which Denton was a member — typically performs searches for evidence or missing persons.

California Mayor-elect Nithya Raman faces decisions on the fate of the police chief, a new LAPD contract and potential changes in policies on immigration enforcement and other issues.Experts say the devices can be potentially dangerous for untrained divers, who may not pick up on the signs of oxygen depletion, a condition known as hypoxia.Just as dangerous is the opposite issue: hyperoxia.“Because of the way it was being operated or because of some failure inside the rebreather, it puts too much oxygen in the mix,” said David McMurdie, co-founder of the California Recove...