Take A Look At What It Takes To Join New Castle County Police Department's Explosive Ordnance Disposal Unit
NEW CASTLE COUNTY, Del. (CBS) - It's a setting that looks like a movie set, but being in a quarry blowing up explosives is all in a day's work for the New Castle County Police Department's Explosive Ordnance Disposal unit.
"We're on call 24-7, we do our normal duties and then when we're called to a suspicious package, or a known device or something like that, we go to work," said Officer First Class Kyle Webb, a patrolman who's been on the team for four years.
The team of four trains monthly in preparation for situations like one captured by Eyewitness News cameras in November, where officers safely removed and destroyed homemade explosive devices from a home on Lavender Lane in Newark. These calls are when the public sees a glimpse of the four robotic members of the team at work. The robots are various sizes and are deployed depending on the size and scope of the investigation.
"I grew up playing video games, and now I get to kind of do the real thing in a sense, one of our robots actually uses a Playstation remote, so it's pretty cool," Webb said.
While there are certainly fun aspects to the assignment, it isn't without danger.
"Every time, you don't know what you're coming into," Webb said. "Every time is the real deal and you have to treat it like that."
Eyewitness News reporter Trang Do learned that firsthand as she suited up in a 100-pound blast suit, designed to protect the wearer as they investigate potential explosive devices. Then, it was off to the training house to locate a possible bomb hidden inside. It was no small feat given the weight of the suit, the helmet's limited visibility and the darkness of the surroundings. Claustrophobics need not apply.
"You also have to be able to control your own emotions and stress levels to do the work," Webb said.
The job's challenges are not only physical but mental.
"It takes a certain type of person to do this, you have to be interested in the work. There's everything from mathematics, physics, chemistry involved," Webb said.
It's a job that has become crucial in a time where they're needed now more than ever.
"It's a changing world as far as what's out on the internet, or what people can look up in books," Webb said. "People who are hobbyists, they build their own explosives, they tinker with things and do all that and don't really realize what they have, to people who have more nefarious means to what they do and actually build devices to hurt people, there's all kinds of reasons why we're here."
