By Trent Dow, Ph.D.
Car bombs detonated in both Paradise, Nevada, on January 1, 2025, and Palm Springs, California, on May 17, 2025, causing loss of life and significant property damage. During the New Orleans terror attack on January 1, 2025, the suspect used a vehicle to ram victims and placed improvised explosive devices in the city prior to the attack.
While the approximately 2,400 local, state and federal public safety bomb technicians continue to train, prepare and respond to these incidents, administrators and elected leaders are often unprepared for the effects of these devices, both detonated and not, on their jurisdictions. Bomb technicians make up a minute portion of law enforcement officers in the United States, and it is likely that very few police administrators have experience with the tactics and techniques used by these teams.
As bomb technicians brief the chain of command on their plan, the dreaded “You need to do what?” response can add unnecessary stress and time to an already dangerous and potentially time-sensitive situation. Bomb squads across the U.S. use a variety of tools, both mechanical and explosive, to render devices safe based on their assessment of the situation. To many administrators, both law enforcement and civilian, these methods can appear dangerous or unnecessary.
Rendering hazardous devices safe while protecting human life, including bomb technicians’, can lead to evacuations, property damage, and loud explosions that attract media attention. For example, a March 2025 incident required the LAPD bomb squad to conduct a controlled burn of a house in a residential neighborhood due to the danger posed by homemade explosives produced inside the residence. The incident necessitated a mayoral press conference.
While burning down houses in residential neighborhoods is thankfully uncommon, the recovery of military ordnance, responses to homemade explosive laboratories, and evacuations of critical facilities such as transit hubs, hospitals, and schools occur far more frequently. These responses and evacuations, while not always national-level news, have significant impacts on the community’s sense of safety and the local economy. Requesting the evacuation of part of an airport, train station, or major department store during the holidays can leave law enforcement executives and elected leaders searching for less drastic, but far more dangerous, alternatives.
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Build trust and confidence
Building trust and confidence with bomb squads is the single best way to reduce concern among law enforcement and civilian administrators during these incidents. Get out on the range with the team and see how its tools work and why technicians use them, including the effects of different types and amounts of explosives. Attend training days, gain an understanding of hazardous device response methodology, and, if possible, even put on a bomb suit.
It is much easier to say, “Good luck, be safe, and let me know what you need,” to a bomb squad commander when leaders understand what technicians are doing and why they are doing it. Police leadership must also ensure they select highly trusted individuals to serve as bomb squad commanders and technicians who are capable of making these difficult decisions.
For the majority of departments without full-time teams, leadership must trust the decision-making of first-arriving bomb technicians, whether or not they are the squad commander. Leaders must also understand the limitations of their bomb squad’s response options and accept that protecting life and preventing injury may require damage to property.
Have a plan
Every jurisdiction is different. It is impossible to compare rendering safe 100-year-old dynamite in a historic building in rural Wyoming to responding to a potential IED in Times Square, except for one commonality: both require a plan.
Every bomb squad response is unique, but having an agency communication and response protocol that empowers bomb squad commanders to make decisions and act, while keeping administrators informed, is essential. Open lines of communication allow bomb squad commanders to marshal additional resources, manage their teams, and keep the community safe.
During in-progress incidents, terminology and preplanned messaging matter. Public Information Officers who are unfamiliar with bomb squad operations can unintentionally publish statements that alarm the community or contain factual inaccuracies. There is a significant difference in professionalism, credibility, and accuracy when words such as “exploded” or “detonated” are used instead of correct terms like “rendered safe.”
When possible, bomb technicians should work directly with Public Information Officers to ensure proper verbiage in press releases and social media posts. See the example below from a recent Tacoma (Wash.) Police Department bomb squad response:
Training, staffing and funding
In an era of shrinking budgets and staffing challenges, sending bomb technicians to advanced training can be difficult, particularly for smaller agencies.
After completing the FBI’s six-week Hazardous Devices School certification course, which is paid for by the technician’s agency, many advanced training opportunities are fully funded by the federal government.
The FBI sponsors courses in maritime response, device electronics, crisis response and tactical bomb technician certification for SWAT integration. The ATF provides advanced explosives disposal training, homemade explosives courses, post-blast investigation instruction, and explosive evidence exploitation training. These courses are taught by subject matter experts and combine classroom instruction with hands-on training, whether on the red clay ranges of Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, or in laboratory and classroom environments.
The relationships built during these courses are also a force multiplier. Bomb technicians interact with peers from across the United States, learn alternative approaches, and expand their professional networks for future assistance.
Final thoughts
Bomb technicians fulfill a unique role in law enforcement. They are expected to be electricians, chemists, emergency planners and investigators, often while wearing an 80-plus-pound bomb suit and operating in environments ranging from the frozen tundra of Alaska to the muggy swamps of Louisiana. I strongly encourage all administrators, law enforcement and elected leaders alike, to get out on the range with their bomb squads and learn what they do and why they do it. Building trust in their decision-making, empowering them to become true experts, and understanding the “why” behind their actions will be invaluable during an explosive incident.
The public safety bomb technician community is a tight-knit group of exceptionally dedicated men and women who voluntarily make the “long walk” downrange to protect their communities from the unknown. I consider myself fortunate to be counted among them and grateful for the lifelong friendships I have made from coast to coast and here in my home region of the Pacific Northwest.
About the author
Trent Dow, Ph.D., is currently a detective with the Tacoma (Washington) Police Department assigned to the Homicide Unit and a member of the Pierce County Force Investigation Team. Det. Dow is an FBI-certified public safety bomb technician and has been a member of the TPD Bomb Squad for more than four years. During his law enforcement career, he has worked in patrol, community policing and the criminal investigations division. Prior to law enforcement, he served eight years in the U.S. Army Military Police Corps, including a tour in Afghanistan building Afghan Local Police capacity. He earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Law from the United States Military Academy (Beat Navy!), a Master’s Degree in Business and Organizational Security Management from Webster University, and a Doctorate in Criminal Justice from Liberty University.
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