Two members of the Hawai‘i Police Division at the moment are safer because of gear bought by a grant administered by the state and funded by the U.S. Division of Homeland Safety.
HPD is considered one of three police departments within the state which are a part of the Hawai‘i Interisland Bomb Squad. The opposite members are from Kaua‘i County and Maui County, and every member division has two officers who’re licensed bomb technicians and are a part of the squad.
DHS awarded about $1.5 million to the state just a few years in the past to buy gear for the bomb squad, together with a bomb robotic, full bomb go well with made from heavy Kevlar, X-ray unit, hazmat gear and numerous different instruments for every member division. The grant additionally supplied funding for every division to buy a brand new cargo truck to hold and home that gear.
The truck and gear have an estimated worth of $ 429,287.37, based on Decision 434, which will probably be thought-about by the Hawai‘i County Council right now, June 15, throughout its common assembly. The decision, launched by Councilman Matt Kaneali‘i-Kleinfelder, authorizes the county to just accept the donation of the truck and gear from the state.
“Having the gear makes the bomb squad attainable,” mentioned Lt. James Gusman, tactical commander for HPD’s Particular Response Staff, which oversees the county’s two bomb technicians.
It wouldn’t have been financially possible for the funds to return from the county’s coffers in any other case. The grant and the gear it funded made it attainable to have the bomb squad on the island, Gusman mentioned.
HPD has had the gear for about two years, he added, and Decision 434 is a procedural step that basically approves the county taking full possession of the truck and gear.
The entire new gear presents further security for the county’s bomb technicians.
The Chevy cargo truck shops the gear, together with the bomb robotic, which is used to intercept gadgets suspected of being an explosive or unexploded ordnance.
“The robotic would truly go down vary to a suspected system,” Gusman mentioned, including the machine is used to get a great take a look at a suspected explosive, take X-rays and even presumably disarm a tool with no technician having to get shut, including an additional layer of safety.
As a result of the gear makes it attainable for the island to have its personal bomb technicians, response instances for incidents the place and when an explosive system is concerned are diminished as a result of the HPD has these technicians in home.
On common, Gusman mentioned the bomb technicians have been activated about as soon as a month throughout the previous 12 months to research or diffuse an explosive or presumably explosive system.
Most of these incidents have concerned unexploded ordnance discovered on an individual’s property that ultimately are deemed secure for elimination, akin to a coaching or spent system. These varieties of calls usually will be dealt with comparatively rapidly by the bomb technicians on island, with some help from army technicians, based on Gusman.
Nonetheless, some will be extra tragic, akin to an incident on the finish of Could the place a person was critically wounded and later died following an explosion at a Puna house. Gusman mentioned incidents akin to what occurred in Puna require further sources and a bigger investigation, involving different companies together with the Federal Bureau of Investigations.
Previous to the Large Island having it’s personal bomb technicians, the HPD principally needed to depend on army items to reply to these incidents. If the army items weren’t on the island or within the state on the time of an incident, response instances had been very lengthy.
“Our officers must maintain a scene for days on finish,” Gusman mentioned, ready for these army items or brokers from the FBI to reply. “Now, as an alternative of ready for days, it’s a matter of an hour or so.”
HPD’s bomb technicians are primarily based in Hilo and North Kohala.
Gusman mentioned HPD’s membership within the interisland bomb squad additionally supplies extra sources by a mutual assist settlement between the three member counties, permitting one member’s technicians to reply if one other member wants further assist.
