Why do Rohnert Park police use UC Berkeley’s bomb squad?

CrimeBeat Q&A is a weekly feature where police reporter Julie Johnson answers readers' questions about local crimes and the law.

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Why does the Rohnert Park Public Safety Department use the University of California, Berkeley police department's bomb squad instead of the Sonoma County sheriff's bomb unit?

— Nate S., city unknown

Because it's free.

Rohnert Park Assistant City Manager Don Schwartz said that until 2010 the city paid about $60,000 each year to the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office for access to its highly trained bomb squad. The flat fee was based on a city's population.

But that year, the city was battling against bankruptcy and looking everywhere to cut costs. Public Safety Director Brian Masterson said he opted to use the UC Berkeley bomb squad, which at the time was priced at 'time and mileage, not to exceed $5,000.' UC Berkeley's bomb unit stopped charging for its services last year.

Rohnert Park has used the university's team roughly four times since 2010, including a call in October for an acid bomb found on the 18th fairway of the Foxtail Golf Club.

Both the UC Berkeley and Sheriff's bomb squads train with the FBI's hazardous devices school in Alabama. The Sheriff's team has veteran members, three with about a decade experience each, Sgt. Randy Williams said. Two also belong to regional bomb squads poised to respond to large-scale incidents.

The most common call? An old grenade a family finds in Grandpa's garage, Williams said.

'We see military devices to homemade devices to fireworks,' Williams said.

UC Berkeley Police Sgt. Nicole Miller said her unit has two specially trained explosive-sniffing dogs. Both agencies use an explosive ordnance disposal robot.

The sheriff's team responds to about 100 calls a year, about one-third from other agencies. Most Sonoma County agencies, including the Santa Rosa Police Department, use the sheriff's bomb squad.

In 2010, Rohnert Park wasn't the only city opting out of the sheriff's annual contract, and so county supervisors approved a per-call-out fee for the local squad. Today, the cost is an hourly rate of about $405 per sergeant and $350 per deputy involved.

The change is emblematic of two trends: The post-9/11 push to train local law enforcement agencies to protect Americans against weapons of mass destruction and the dramatic budget-slashing effects of the economic recession.

Highly skilled teams that were once full-time positions, including the sheriff's bomb unit, are now on-call assignments held in addition to regular posts. But the training remains the same.

Submit your questions about crime, safety and criminal justice to Staff Writer Julie Johnson at julie.johnson@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @jjpressdem.