The Bomb Squad is assigned to the Division of Homeland Security and Investigations and is commanded by a tactical unit lieutenant. Bomb Squad team members are assigned throughout the Sheriff's Office and respond to incidents after receiving notification of a callout. The team has 13 members. The team includes one lieutenant, three sergeants and nine officers. Currently, the team has nine certified explosives technicians. The certification is issued through the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and training is administered with the assistance of the U.S. Army. The certification training is six weeks long at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama.
After completing basic certification training, the member must maintain proficiency in several areas including:
- Nuclear, Chemical, Biological (NBC)
- conventional explosives
- improvised explosives
- incendiaries and
- disposal procedures.
Proficiency is maintained and enhanced by participating in scenarios initiated by team members or other Explosive Ordinance Disposal teams during scheduled training. Throughout the year, team members attend additional training classes administered through the federal government. In 2005, members attended advanced training classes for Hazardous Materials Emergency Response and Radiation Detection. The team also received training in Improvised Explosive Electronics and Explosive Foam Mitigation Training.
The Bomb Squad primarily responds to identify suspicious packages and to the recovery of unexploded ordnance. The team's callouts occurred in Duval, Baker, Clay, Nassau and St. Johns counties; however, as the Tier one team for the Regional Domestic Security Task Force's, Region III, the unit could be called upon to respond to any one of 13 counties.
The Bomb Squad responded to 99 callouts in 2005.