Countywide : Robot to Soon Join Sheriff’s Bomb Unit
The toughest calls for the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department’s bomb squad soon will go to its newest member, a remote-control robot approved Tuesday by the Board of Supervisors.
The board approved transfer of $120,000 to buy the 600-pound robot with money from a fund used to buy equipment for the department. At a time when budget cuts are expected, no general fund money will be used to buy the machine, said Sheriff’s Lt. Tom Convery, who heads the bomb unit.
“I am appalled at the changes in our county and our society” that make something like a bomb robot necessary, Supervisor Maggie Kildee said before the 4-0 vote. Supervisor John Flynn was absent.
The number and sophistication of bombs found in the county have increased in recent years, Convery said. A robot can examine and defuse a bomb while its human controllers stay out of harm’s way, Convery said.
The machine rolls on treads that pivot for turns and climbs, while its cameras relay information to the operator.
Detective Joe Braga, one of three bomb technicians in the county, praised the decision. A suspected pipe bomb that Braga retrieved Monday from an alley in Ventura later was determined to contain powerful explosives.
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