Criminal Lawyer Hanging with the Bomb Squad

Last Saturday I had the great pleasure of spending the day with the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Department Bomb Squad. This is an elite group of law enforcement officers who volunteered for this hazardous assignment. They have been highly trained in all aspects of defusing bombs. They have many tools at their disposal including bomb sniffing dogs and robots. Their German Shepherd dogs come mainly from Czechoslovakia. They cost around $8000.00 and then the Sheriff’s Department invests another $40,000 in training them. These dogs are assigned a handler and live the rest of their lives with this officer. After the dog “retires” the officer purchases the dog from the Sheriff’s Department for $1. The Bomb Squad also has several robots. They cost around $300,000 each, cheap, when you think about the lives that the robot saves.  The members of the Bomb Squad also have protective helmets and heavy weight gowns that will absorb some of a bomb blast. The Bomb Squad is busy these days, with the internet making it easy to find out how to make bombs. They responded to over 100 calls last year. It was very reassuring for this San Francisco Criminal Lawyer to know that we have such great members of our law enforcement community who are willing to take on these dangerous jobs.