ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Bomb threats and suspicious package calls happen very often. What’s not as common is when they turn out to be actual threats.
But law enforcement has to take every single call seriously, as evident from what we see in Austin.
Data from the ATF paints a picture for U.S. bombing incidents. In 2016, there were just shy of 16,000 “explosives-related incidents.” Of those, 439 of them were bombings.
The data shows 503 of them were hoaxes.
California and Florida had the highest numbers. That makes sense - they are the first- and third-largest states, respectively, in the U.S.
Another interesting fact is all of the bomb safety techs in the country train at one place -- the FBI’s hazardous devices school in Alabama.
We spoke to a local agent who trained there and asked what are they looking for after being tipped off about a bomb?
“You’re talking to the people, what do they think? Does the package belong there? Was there a threat associated with it? Is there a bombing campaign going on like there was in Texas?" said Steven Miller, who’s on the bomb squad for the FBI in Tampa. "You know, those things are all factors. What’s the location, are you at a government building or, you know, a target of a bombing? Those things become very important.”
Locally, we’ve asked all our agencies – how many bomb threat calls do you receive a year?
Here were their answers:
Tampa Police
2013: 30
2014: 24
2015: 28
2016: 15
2017: 26
Polk County Sheriff’s Office
2018: 0
2017: 6
2016: 7
2015: 11
2014: 8
Citrus County Sheriff’s Office
2013: 2
2014: 6
2015: 7
2016: 3
2017: 4
2018 through 3/21: 8
Sarasota Police –
2018: 7
2017: 3
2016: 0
2015: 3
2014: 2
Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office
March 20, 2017 to March 20, 2018: 18
Pasco County Sheriff’s Office
One bomb threat since 1/1/17.
Bradenton Police
2017-2018: 2
2016-2017: 2
2015-2016: 1
2014-2015: 1
2013-2014: 1
St. Petersburg Police
2018 through 3/21: None
2017: 1 call
2016: 5 calls
2015: 20 calls
2014: 19 calls
2013: 10 calls
2012: 15 calls
Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office
2013: 0
2014: 9
2015: 13
2016: 10
2018: 0
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