Bomb squad head stays busy

The regional squad covers 14 counties, and calls are on the rise.

By TAMARA LUSH

© St. Petersburg Times,
published October 16, 2001

Sgt. Jim Diamond had barely finished talking to City Hall employees about safe mail handling procedures on Monday when his cell phone rang.

"Where? A package? Okay. Send someone down there."

And rang.

"Is it a residence?"

And rang.

"A letter? I'm headed to the office soon."

Diamond is the commander of the Tampa Bay Regional Bomb Squad. The nation's collective anxiety about bioterrorism combined with Diamond's 30 years of experience working with explosives, hazardous materials, and "things that go bump in the night," is making him the most sought-after man in the Tampa Bay area.

"Since Sept. 11, we've responded to four to five calls daily," he said. "And it's increasing rapidly."

The regional bomb squad assists law enforcement and responds to calls in 14 counties, from Citrus to Sarasota to Polk to Highlands.

Fifteen people are on the squad, including Diamond, and all are sworn law enforcement officers who are also certified to handle hazardous materials. Last year, the squad responded to 296 calls; 146 of them were live explosives.

The majority of the calls in the past month have been from people and businesses in Tampa, said Diamond, and many of them have involved mail.

Anthrax-laced mail has surfaced in New York, Nevada and on Monday, at U.S. Sen. Tom Daschle's office in Washington, D.C. Around Tampa Bay, law enforcement has been besieged with calls about contaminated mail; although test results were still pending on many cases, authorities said Monday that no anthrax has been detected.

When Diamond is not responding to calls or dispatching the squad, he talks to government officials and businesses about mail threats.

"Is the material that you've received expected? Do you know who sent it? Does the postage match its size? Is it overly secure? Does it have bulges, stains or odors?" he tells people. "What we're talking about is basic common sense."

Clad in a tight-fitting, black polo shirt with the squad's name embroidered in white letters on the chest, Diamond exudes calm. He speaks in precise, short sentences, and one can easily see a Hollywood action star -- a young Charles Bronson, perhaps -- playing him in a movie.

In 1971, Diamond was one of the founding members of the bomb squad. Since then, he has handled everything from organized crime bombings to bomb threats at middle schools.

In the days after the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, he and a couple of other squad members visited the New York scene just so they could train.

In his regular job at the Tampa Police Department, he runs the Police Athletic League and is in charge of juvenile justice grants. Since Sept. 11, however, he hasn't done anything but handle bomb squad calls.

On Saturday night, for instance, Diamond went to a Pinellas County woman's home. She was concerned that when she opened a letter, a white powder fell out. The powder, as it turned out, was dried adhesive from the envelope.

Diamond stresses that people should always call 911 if they think a package or letter is suspicious, but he also encourages people not to let fear rule their lives.

He points out that traffic crashes killed 3,000 people in Florida last year.

"If it did not cause you alarm on Sept. 10, don't let it cause you alarm today," he said. "We have a higher potential for being killed in a traffic crash or falling off a ladder or sticking a pruning pole into a power line than getting killed in a terrorist act.

"If we allow them to influence our daily lives, then they've won."

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