AFP’s Bomb-Building Team Tackles Crime
The AFP’s Weapons Technical Intelligence (WTI) team doesn’t just investigate bombs. It builds them, just to blow them up. All in the name of solving crime.
The widespread carnage caused by a bomb detonation doesn’t often leave much sign of the device that caused it. However, the few remnants that do remain can serve as crucial evidence for the highly skilled WTI team to analyse.
WTI specialists – part of the AFP’s Forensics Command – are called on to provide advice about evidence collected from a disaster scene, since any crime scene characteristic they can identify might help to crack the case.
In most cases, the Canberra-based team works with images or videos from relevant local authorities, which they scrutinise with a technical eye to detect anything and everything of significance.
“In simple terms, we look for things that shouldn’t be there, or that our experience tells us should be there,” WTI Team Leader Lora said.
Experts in chemical or biological agents, radiological and nuclear materials (CBRN), explosives or improvised explosive devices (IED) and electronics, the team is armed with more than 300 years’ experience.
WTI is a combination of the Australia Bomb Data Centre (formed in 1978) and the Australian CBRN Data Centre (formed in 2005) – both legislated frameworks under the Australian Government and merged to form WTI in 2012 – with the goal to collect, collate, interpret and disseminate technical intelligence.
While predominantly based in the nation’s capital, where their set-up includes an electronics workshop where items can be analysed and devices built, the team has deployed to major international incidents.
These included the Bali Bombings in 2002 and 2005, Australian Embassy bombing in Jakarta in 2004, the downing of MH-17 in eastern Ukraine in 2014, and other horrifying scenes in countries like Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Sri Lanka, among others.
“The sheer scale and devastation of those international incidents is hard to fathom, but the AFP will always answer calls to help its partner agencies,” Lora said.
“In the case of the Bali Bombings, there were not only a lot of Australians involved, but family members back home searching for answers.
“This was a significant incident which resulted in a whole of Australian Government response, and the WTI team was a small part of the AFP’s support of the investigation.
“After the 2005 incident, we found small components of a switch and electronic components which helped to link the incident to devices we’d previously seen in Indonesia.
“Our members aren’t police officers or detectives, and we don’t carry guns or make arrests, but the work we do can be just as important to law enforcement agencies, and we take great pride in that.”
WTI members come from scientific, law enforcement, military, and weapons technical intelligence backgrounds, and undertake technical analysis of information to understand all types of hazardous devices and materials.
All members have significant hands-on experience within their specialist area, allowing for an intelligence assessment over the technical characteristics of any evidence recovered from blast scenes.
Part of that understanding has seen the WTI team develop a unique method of gathering intelligence.
“We build our own IEDs from scratch,” WTI Team Leader Bruce said. “The device is constructed from the same materials, and contains all the parts, a criminal or terrorist would use in the real world to make a functional bomb.
“It helps us see how easy, or difficult, it is to manufacture an IED, and what we need to look for when we’re part of a search warrant for example.
“Where practical, we will initiate the IED at an explosives range for analysis.
“That helps us identify what we might be looking for after an explosion has occurred.
“We look at what’s left basically.
“It might just look like a mangled piece of steel to some people, but in a perfect scenario, we find a marking, logo or serial number, anything we can pass on to investigators.”
The data collected and analysed can greatly assist the AFP and partner agencies.
“The type of device, materials used, how it was constructed, all those details can help authorities piece together crucial trends when it comes to these incidents,” Bruce said.
“Criminals are like anyone else in life, if they try something and it works, they’re likely to have another go.
“One obscure detail about a crime scene could be the key to solving the case, and it might be something our team has noticed from a previous job, which may not have been seen in another state or country.
“That is why we maintain strong relationships with our valued partners in law enforcement, defence, science and technology, both around Australia and internationally.
“The sharing intelligence and insights can only enhance the knowledge of agencies around the world, which is fitting, as this crime type has no regard for borders.
“Technical intelligence is a really valuable tool in the quest to not only solve hideous crimes, but to prevent them from happening in the first instance.”
https://www.afp.gov.au/news-centre/media-release/building-bombs-help-solve-crimes-meet-afps-weapons-technical-intelligence