[Baltimore Citizen’s Academy] Bomb Squad
You are sitting at the finish line of the Baltimore Marathon waiting for the runners to start coming in. You walk to the trash can to throw something away and see a box under the stands. You could call the cops, and have them find out that its a box of t-shirts, or you could ignore it and potentially realize that you could have averted the next Boston Marathon Bombing.
You decide to be cautious and tell an officer what you saw. They call one of the bomb sniffing dogs over to check it out. The dog sniffs it, and indicates to the handler that this might be a bomb. Now this is a situation. What do they do about that situation?
They call the bomb squad.
Now, the situation I just described was highly fabricated, and basically a worst case scenario. Its a situation that has not happened in Baltimore, or the Baltimore area, but they do get called 350–400 times per year, and use the robot 50 times per year.
In fact, up until 2014, the squad was a part time division, with members splitting their time between training for their bomb squad duties, executing those duties, and acting in other official police duties, such as patrol officers. Since 2014, they have five full time bomb squad members who also act as SWAT team members. Most calls are much more innocuous than the alarmist one that I described in the lead, as they are things like unidentified packages or backpacks that are left unattended at large events, or even at local businesses. Those calls are also for sweeps for dignitary visits, or any of the 150 special events that happen in Baltimore every year.
Members of the bomb squad are SWAT team members, and get three weeks of SWAT training, as well as a week of HAZMAT training, a week of training with the DEA, and six weeks of basic FBI training. You might think that HAZMAT would be for drug manufacturing houses, but m
The situation I described at the marathon is a situation they have dealt with, except the result has never been a bomb. Its usually a bag or box that someone just left in an inopportune location. But the only way to know for sure what is in a suspicious package is to open it, and if there is suspicion that the package is a bomb, then you want to do that in a safe manner.
What is the safe manner of dealing with a possible bomb? They have lots of tools for that!
Disruptors, including a total containment vessel for possible detonation
X-Ray machine, similar to what you would see at the airport used by the TSA. Previously, they used system with film that was very large, and unweildy. The newer version is digital, fits in a backpack, and can show the results instantly.
Bomb defusing robots that can also go into a building, and drag someone to safety. The robot below has wheels that can climb stairs, or deal with poor terrain. It has an arm that is sticking up to the front that is used to grab, and can be used for grabbing an explosive, a person, or anything else. The camera is at the top of the tall thin tower on the back of the robot. It also has the ability to Xray unknown packages or people.
Why would it do people? Warning: This video is very not safe for work. Or life.
The robot sits in the large SWAT truck, and the picture to the left shows it taking the equivalent of a wheelchair ramp out of the truck. That truck acts as a central command post for serious situations that require The robot looks like something that could be rolling around on Mars, but the control system they use is something that could be used on the Apollo 13 mission. I asked to be able to drive it around, but I guess they don’t just want random people hotrodding their bomb bot.
They also have the more traditional bomb suits, known as an explosive ordnance disposal suit, that can handle fire, explosions, fragmentation, and blunt trama. They are 94 lbs, and last 7 years. The biggest risk in disarming a bomb is the shockwave that it generates that damages internal organs. It also lacks gloves, which allows for better dextarity, but no protection to the wearer’s hands. Because of the risk, they prefer to use the robot before the bomb suit.
Another thing they use are disruptors, which are things like high pressure water that can tear open a box, suitcase, or backpack to show what is in it. Between water and shotgun blanks, they can usually defuse bombs safely that way.
They had an entire table of other rigging and explosive tools. As SWAT members, they are the ones that are called into very uncertain situations.
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The different levels of incidents are ones where there are lots of time because people have been moved out. There are wicker ones where there is something at Pratt and president and needs to happen wicker. Then there is a bomb along a race route where it needs to be fixed now.
