Explosives Unit


The Explosives Unit--or bomb squad--was established to provide assistance to agencies and individuals in the rendering safe of identified explosives or suspected explosive devices and materials. Members provide training in the areas of suspicious letters, packages, devices, and explosives to emergency response personnel and to public and private sector entities.

The Washington State Patrol, Washington State Ferries, and U.S. Coast Guard recently partnered in a very successful and dynamic joint training session aboard a Washington State Ferry. Along with representatives from Camp Murray’s WMD Civil Support Team, the King County Sheriff’s Office, the Richland PD Bomb Squad, and the Seattle Police Department, the WSP and USCG were able to take advantage of a unique opportunity to train on and around an in-transit WSF vessel. The MV Kaleetan was being moved from Anacortes to Eagle Harbor, Bainbridge Island for scheduled service, which provided six hours of mobile training.

The event was extremely well planned and orchestrated with several terrorist and emergency incident scenarios. WSP Bomb, SWAT, and K9 teams coordinated with the other agencies to execute several incident mitigation strategies. In all, over 100 first responder personnel demonstrated an ability to work closely together utilizing a diverse group of response capabilities and tactics to mitigate a wide range of emergency incidents.

Additional similar training events are being planned to include additional WSF first responder agencies and scenarios. The Washington State Patrol's Vessel and Terminal Security Division is responsible for providing security and safety to the Washington State Ferries, which is the largest ferry system in the United States and third largest in the world.