SALEM — Salem Sound should be a lot safer, officials said, thanks to a $200,000 Homeland Security grant secured by the Police Department with the aid of state Senate Majority Leader Fred Berry, D-Peabody.

The money helped buy a Fire Department rescue truck that has been outfitted for the Salem police dive team and as an emergency command vehicle for the department's special operations unit.

"This puts us on a whole new level," said Lt. Conrad Prosniewski, who heads the 16-member underwater dive team. "It gives us the equipment and the ability to do things with a lot more safety than we did in the past."

Salem's dive team serves a region well beyond city limits. It represents the Northeast Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council, which includes 46 communities, and is the only dive team north of Boston that has been certified by the U.S. Customs Service.

"When Customs has a suspicious vessel come in ... they'll give us a call to do a hull sweep of a ship," Prosniewski said.

The dive team also went to Gloucester recently to help the U.S. Coast Guard search a sunken fishing vessel with a crewman feared inside. The search showed that nobody was aboard when the boat went down.

The dive team has the capability of doing criminal investigations, officials said.

"Think CSI under the water," said Capt. John Jodoin, commander of special operations.

The grant also was used to buy an underwater robot that can search areas that are dangerous or difficult to reach, before a diver is sent down. In addition, the police received new dive suits, underwater cameras, an underwater metal detector and lights for night searches.

Police Chief Robert St. Pierre and other top officials praised Berry for arranging meetings with top state officials and strongly supporting Salem's application for the grant.

"We wouldn't have anything without the senator," said Jodoin. "In his own quiet way, he set all this up for us."

Next on the department's wish list is a $125,000 police patrol boat. During a recent meeting at police headquarters, Berry sounded optimistic about landing that grant.

"I think we're going to be here in another two to three months unveiling a boat," Berry said.