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Austin police bomb squad still responding to higher number of suspicious package calls

With new robots in tow, the Austin Police Department is still responding to a large number of suspcious package calls.

Austin — AUSTIN -- The Austin police bomb squad is still responding to an increased number of suspicious packages calls, even after last month's bombings.

For instance, the team responded to four suspicious package calls on Sunday, where before the team would get four in a 10-county region in a month's time.

Lt. Courtney Renfro with the unit said this shows that the spike is still there and that people are still scared. He called it a new normal with the city of Austin.

But with existing and new resources available, Lt. Renfro and his seven bomb technicians continue to train to make sure Austin and the surrounding nine-county area remain as safe as possible.

Resources like bomb robots that help keep officers at a safer distance when investigating suspicious packages. They're able to pick up items, climb stairs, act as surveillance and scan for explosives.

Come next week, a newer model that will travel faster and have greater lifting capabilities, is expected to arrive. A second will follow in a few months.

"They put eyes and ears in situations where we don't want to jeopardize human lives," said Lt. Renfro.

The robots deployed hundreds of times last month when a serial bomber terrorized our city. A time the team won't soon forget.

"It was pretty endless. We were getting two to three hours of sleep a night and waking up the next day to a bombing that we had to go to, and in between working these bombings, we had to cut guys loose off of the bombing calls to go run more suspicious package calls. It was pretty nonstop," said Senior Patrol Officer Rob Nunez.

Nunez has been part of the bomb squad for 15 years.

"I was in shock. Each time we kept getting a subsequent bombing, it just took the breath away from me and I'd immediately start thinking about my technicians that were running toward those scenes and what they might be running into, and as they got more complex like the trip wire, it scared me to death," said Lt. Renfro.

Team members said a new portable X-ray device called the Nano saved them time when they didn't know how much they had.

"Previously, before having these Nanos, we'd take one of these two big trucks and that was our only capabilities to conduct an X-ray. So we're getting to the scenes much quicker, the technicians are conducting threat assessments much faster than they previously could. Thus, opening up a scene from what we have closed down much quicker," said Lt. Renfro.

Resources and technology they're using to make Austin safer.

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