Regional bomb squad to reduce emergency response

~ The team has officers from Cape Girardeau, Jackson, Sikeston and Poplar Bluff, Mo.

SIKESTON, Mo. -- With the addition of new equipment and training for personnel nearing, officials Tuesday said the Southeast Missouri Regional Bomb Squad was less than three months from becoming operational.

During a news conference Tuesday at a Sikeston fire station, local law enforcement officials said the first two of five squad members will complete their training and certification in early July. Also Tuesday, two of the three vehicles the squad will use were unveiled.

"I think we've got a great team, and once we get our training behind us, we'll be a force to be reckoned with," Sikeston Department of Public Safety Chief Drew Juden said.

In the past, whenever an incident would occur that called for a bomb squad response, law enforcement officials in Southeast Missouri would have to wait upward of six hours for a team to arrive from Jefferson City, Mo., or St. Louis.

Quicker response

With the regional squad, the team will be able to get anywhere in Southeast Missouri in about two hours, according to Juden.

"We will all benefit from this," he said.

Juden recalled an incident a couple of years ago in Sikeston where a man, strapped with what appeared to be a bomb, robbed a bank. When authorities arrested him, they placed him in a vacant parking lot and waited six and a half hours for a squad to come in and determine the bomb a fake.

School run by FBI

Local law enforcement officials had attempted to get funding for a regional bomb squad since 2003, he said. Part of the delay, according to Juden, was from the transition of elected officials following the 2004 gubernatorial election and the waiting list for the FBI's bomb squad program, the only one in the country to certify bomb squad technicians.

The first two members of the team will enter the program May 29 and complete it by July 7. The remaining members of the team could have to wait up to a year to enter the program.

"The school is very difficult to get into," Juden said.

When the squad first activates, it will rely on help from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives for the first year of operation, he said.

The squad received a grant for $1.3 million for equipment from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security through the Missouri State Emergency Management Agency, according to Juden.

The squad will use three vehicles. One is a pickup truck with supplies that could be dispatched out the quickest to scenes, and the second would hold more equipment and also transport the squad's robot to assist in various situations too dangerous for humans.

A third vehicle, a total containment vessel, has yet to be delivered but would be used to contain a blast from a bomb.

"It would hold a pretty good charge if it goes off," said Sikeston Special Operations Lt. Michael Williams, who will command the squad.

In addition to a squad commander, the team members are made up of one officer from Cape Girardeau, Jackson, Sikeston and Poplar Bluff, Mo. The squad will cover Ste. Genevieve County to the south of the state, and from the Mississippi River west to Willow Springs, Mo.

kmorrison@semissourian.com

335-6611 extension 127