(Thursday, July 8^th, 2010 @ 12:30 PM) The Explosive Ordinance Disposal Unit, known as EOD, is a special team of highly trained officers within the Gwinnett County Police Department; a team that is tasked with several missions vital to our role in keeping our communities and cities safe.

Of course, the primary mission of the EOD Unit is to locate, diagnose, render safe, and make safe to investigate, bombs, hazardous devices or suspicious objects. However, EOD is also called upon to assist other internal police units and external police agencies on a regular basis - EOD may supplement and assist the SWAT Team on an entry by looking for and working around potential booby-traps - and other police departments depending on their needs at any given time. EOD is also called on to assist Haz-Mat with clandestine labs and homemade explosives as both are often based on the same basic organic chemistry procedures.

While the Explosive Ordinance Disposal Unit is part of the Gwinnett County Police Department, they are commonly called upon to assist city and other jurisdictions both inside and outside of Gwinnett.  They, like the other specialized resources within the department, make their skills, resources and tools available to agencies requesting our aid and assistance. 

Today, we announce that the Gwinnett County Police Department has acquired a new, state-of-the-art $500,000 Hazardous Device Response platform - a new "Bomb Truck."  This endeavor was funded with a combination of a $300,000 grant from Georgia Homeland Security's administration and additional $200,000 in funding provided by monies forfeited from drug dealers based upon this agency's participation in federal level drug task force investigations. In bringing this truck online to serve Gwinnett County, there were no costs directly born by Gwinnett County tax payers.

This new truck is not an off-the-shelf model. At the direction of Chief of Police Charles Walters, Lt. Bill Walsh and his team have spent the last two years designing and building this unit from the ground up to better serve them and their agency, rather than retro-fitting their operations to a non-purpose built truck.

The truck's final touches were finished and vehicle was placed into service just last month.  Since, EOD technicians have begun to use it as a base of operations for police calls needing their specialized services.  The implementation of this vehicle has consolidated bomb squad operations, allowing them to become more efficient in their operations.  "This single unit contains every piece of equipment they would need to respond to virtually anything," Chief of Police Charles Walters explained.  "It effectively and efficiently streamlines this operation and sets the stage for their progression through the next twenty years.  This is but one specialized unit of this police department.  Like the others, it has been equipped and highly trained, not only to take action in the unincorporated areas of Gwinnett County, but to support and assist area city agencies and larger jurisdictions as well.  Because of their high level of training and the specialized equipment the Gwinnett County Police Department has been able to provide, this unit will without a doubt be an invaluable resource, benefiting not only residents throughout Gwinnett, but those throughout our entire region. With their specialization and equipment, this team also works closely to supplement specialists from the FBI and GBI whenever requested." 

Mounted on a heavy-duty diesel chassis, the vehicle is about the size of two ambulances. It's air conditioned, has awnings to provide shade and is outfitted with enough food and water so technicians can operate comfortably and be self-sufficient for up to three days in an extreme emergency.

Among many improvements, a remote camera can be extended more than 30 feet in the air from the top of the truck to help scope out surroundings.  A powerful light grid rests on another mount on top to provide ample lighting on-scene. The telescoping mast and camera mounted on the vehicle will undoubtedly prove to be an invaluable accessory for robot operators, who are now able to view the robot from a different perspective than just the robot's on-board cameras. It also gives them an overall view of the operations area, for planning and security considerations. Power for these, and for all electrical needs, is provided by a diesel-fueled generator.

The squad's bomb-handling robots, which were previously stored on the back of a smaller vehicle for transport, now have their own storage areas in the truck. With folding ramps the robots can be deployed in just minutes.

Because the equipment is consolidated, response times will decrease and overall service has increased. The squad averages 50 calls a year.  This year alone, they have already responded to 32 incidents requiring their special skill set.

Throughout this endeavor, Lt. Walsh and his team received tremendous support and guidance from Chief Walters as well as advice from Gwinnett County Fire and Emergency Services.  With those contacts and that support, they brought the fire service's experience in the design of large public safety trucks to the table as well. This provided the team with the combined support of existing Haz-Mat resources coupled with the counsel and benefit of countless experiences of the collective police department and the assistance of other specialized subject matter experts as they worked to design and then oversaw construction of the truck.

It was logical to select a vehicle capable of transporting a team, with its equipment maintained on-board, rather than each member having assigned equipment in his or her take-home vehicle. This way the unit limits the number of emergency vehicles responding to a call, and keeps the personnel together as they respond so they can discuss the information available and begin to formulate a strategy before arrival. This is especially valuable on out-of-county responses, where they may travel 50 or more miles to a call, with minimal radio communications.

This well-designed and constructed truck will provide many years of service.  With the changing emphasis on bomb squads to be WMD-response units, equipment needs have grown, as has the value and complexity of that equipment. Where one did not have much concern other than securing demolition tools and disruptors in a truck, new demands on the design of response equipment are driven by the variety of computer-based equipment which require more environmentally controlled storage and more delicate handling places.  This job-specific design, built not only for the purpose at hand, but for the future of operations, will provide reliable response and on-site service for many years to come.  This will undoubtedly improve how the department responds to threats while keeping technicians effective and comfortable as they keep us safe.