IUPD gets crash course in explosives

The cadet’s eyes were fixed on the screen as the slides revealed different images. TATP. Boosters. Dynamite. Different explosive agents, different explosive devices, none quite the same.

“The question is, what does a bomb look like?” Kent Havens asked the crowd. “You’re only limited by a bomber’s imagination.”

Detective Havens, a bomb technician with the Indiana State Police, lectured the IU Police Department about explosives June 5. One of 15 certified bomb techs in the state, he teaches cadets on this section of their studies.

“We come down every year for the academy,” Havens said. “Explosives is part of their curriculum.”

Havens lectured to about 40 IUPD cadets as part of their general training. While IUPD gets a basic course, the Indiana State Police is responsible for handling situations involving explosives.

The Indiana bomb squad is divided into bomb technicians and explosive ordinance reconnaissance officers. The bomb techs are all certified at the Hazardous Devices School, a national training center at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Ala. While either may help prepare a site, only the bomb techs can put on a bomb suit and render an explosive safe. They use EOD9 suits, the same ones used in “The Hurt Locker.”

Besides suits, the squad has 10 bomb trucks that can outfit around 10 local squads each, three dogs and two Allen Vanguard robots.

“Robots have really helped with safety,” Havens said. “But at the end of the day, someone has to go up with their hands and say if it is or isn’t a bomb.”

The Indiana bomb squad patrols events including the Indy 500 and the State of the State Address. The squad recently started attending IU football and basketball games.
“This all stems from Boston,” Havens said, referring to the April 15 Boston Marathon bombing. “There has been an increase in awareness since then.”

Havens went on to demonstrate the basics of explosives. He explained the different types of explosives (low and high, depending on speed), and the different types of explosions (mechanical, nuclear and chemical). He passed around deactivated bombs and hollowed out grenades for the cadets to inspect.

Havens also discussed improvised explosive devices. IEDs are homemade, making them varied, unpredictable and often unstable. They can be in the form of soda cans, flashlight bombs, briefcase bombs and pipe bombs, the number one type of IED in Indiana.

There was an explosives demonstration to be held after the class at the former IU Outdoor Firearms Range, but the event was canceled when the bomb techs set to perform the exercise were called out to Hancock County. Police reported a 17-year-old male was tampering with a pipe bomb his elder brother had made when it exploded, injury his hand. The squad was dispatched to investigate the incident on the grounds that there could be more explosives.

Havens said his job is tricky, but worthwhile.

“We’re an unnecessary necessity,” Havens said. “They don’t want us around until they need us. Police often get upset when they call us out and it’s a false alarm, but I don’t. It’s what we’re here for. We don’t do this for money or glory. We do it because this is our home.”