Earlier this year, news outlets reported of a serial bomber in Texas who killed two people and injured five from March 2 to 20. Though the story gripped national attention, Alex Guerrero, an explosives enforcement officer with the Houston Field Division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) says that in his line of work, dealing with homemade explosive devices happens almost daily.
To extend his knowledge to ground-level law enforcement, Guerrero worked with the Beaumont Police Department (Texas) to host a multi-jurisdictional post-blast training for local LEOs this past June. The five-day training taught officers about explosive identification and application, evidence collection, IED component recognition and included a live explosives demonstration—all aimed at teaching law enforcement systematic methods of investigating explosion scenes.
How it got started
The training stemmed from one chief’s realized value of federal partnerships. Beaumont Police Chief Jimmy Singletary began working with federal agents early on in his career and knew it was something he wanted to continue when he became chief of police. “When I got to be chief, I assigned an officer to the ATF, the DEA, the FBI, the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force and ICE,” he says. From the partnership came three post-blast investigation schools over the last three years.
This type of training, says Singletary, has been absolutely beneficial for his officers. “It’s not just post-blast education, but it also trains us on what leads up to it, including how the bomb is placed, where it’s placed and why it might be placed in certain areas over others,” he says. About 30 to 40 officers from around the area participated in the nearly weeklong course, including about a dozen Beaumont officers, accompanied by the Houston PD bomb squad, Harris County bomb squad and ATF.
The many steps of training
The post-blast training can be looked at like baby steps, says ATF’s Guerrero, beginning with the basics. “The post blast training that we do deals with someone actually causing an explosive bomb to go off. What we do in the training is give them a classroom course on just the general information and an introduction into explosives. We talk about the different types of explosives that are available to the community. We give them knowledge about the types of explosives that are available to most civilians.”
This is an important factor, says Singletary. “Recent history has shown that whether it’s a small town or large city, it doesn’t make any difference. Some of these devices are so easily put together and their contents can be purchased on the internet,” he says. “You don’t have to be a chemist to do this.”
Part of the training included a live-fire demonstration to see firsthand the damage different types of explosives can cause. “We teach the hazards that could be associated with anything from reloading gun powders to military explosives and we teach them the importance of safety when you’re dealing with these types of items,” says Guerrero. “At the end of the day we take them out to the range and give them a demonstration showing them some of the explosives that we talked about in the classroom so they can hear, feel and see exactly the power these explosives have. And not just the military explosives, we also show them the potential power an explosive available to a civilian in the community could cause.” Singletary notes that while the live demonstration was entertaining, the most important part was that it benefitted the officers to see what some of these explosive devices could actually do and how much damage they could cause.
The rest of the week included classroom instruction, which focused on electronics, construction of explosive devices and devices many agents have seen used before. “We give them an understanding of how devices can function on the electronic side and then we start showing them different types of components that can be utilized in devices and get them moving forward on identifying these things,” says Guerrero. “Eventually, as you go through the course we will have components that have been involved in explosions and we will put that on a tabletop.” Students have the opportunity to go through the material and separate all the evidence that was blown up so they can see if they can figure out how the device was put together.
“When we start off with the practical exercise, we are just showing them different components and based on the training they received in class, they are able to identify the majority of components that they are seeing,” Guerrero notes. “Then as we progress, they will see components that have been involved in an explosion. We teach them that even though they have been involved in an explosion, a lot of times if you have a little bit of training you’ll still be able to identify some components, as long as you can find them where you’re processing your scene. It’s baby steps. We are working from a clean item to a dirty item down the line just to show them that it can be done.”
Advice for smaller agencies
Many agencies do not have their own bomb squad, but it’s still important for them to have EOD training, says Guerrero. “Just because an agency doesn’t have a bomb squad doesn’t mean they aren’t going to have or find themselves in a situation where they could have a bomb in their jurisdiction,” he says. For agencies interested in getting training, he recommends reaching out to a local ATF office. “Most of your major cities are going to have at a minimum one or two agents in that area,” he notes. “Even if they don’t have explosives-specific agents in that area, those agents can reach out to our National Center for Explosives Training and Research and they can put them in contact with the nearest agent in that particular area that has that capability to bring that training to that department.” Better yet, many times the ATF will pay for the expenses to conduct the training, in order for agencies to not only gather the knowledge but share it as well.
