Twin Ports Police Ask Military To Assist When Bomb Threats Occur

Law enforcement in the Twin Ports cities of Superior and Duluth is asking the Air National Guard in Duluth to lend a hand when they receive bomb threats.

When a suspicious device was found at a Superior hotel this week, Superior Police Chief Nick Alexander said a bomb squad that was three hours away in Marathon County had to be called in.

“Duluth PD or Superior PD, if we have a potential explosive device incident, we’re required to use other state resources. Minnesota would go to their joint operation center and typically get St. Paul’s or St. Croix County’s bomb squad …. For Superior, we contact Wisconsin Emergency Management, and they dispatch Marathon County to us as the bomb squad team,” said Alexander. “Incidents where there could be an explosive device – that’s a lot of time.”

The Air National Guard’s 148th Fighter Wing in Duluth has an Explosive Ordinance Disposal team, also known as an EOD team, that can handle explosive devices. Duluth Police Chief Gordon Ramsay said they used to call them for assistance, but the guard has been unable to help since a change in protocol about two years ago.

“We can’t shut hotels down and apartment buildings down and major commerce while we wait hours and hours and hours,” said Ramsay.

Alexander said the 148th would be a valuable resource to Superior police, which have now dealt with two potential explosive devices so far this year. The Marathon County bomb squad determined the device at the hotel to be a low frequency transmitter. But Superior’s police chief said a handmade explosive has also been discovered at a rail yard.

In Duluth, Ramsay said they’ve had about six calls this year.

Both Ramsay and Alexander said law enforcement are considering whether to form a regional bomb squad.

“We have an international port and lots of significant resources and assets in the area that are important to protect,” said Alexander.

The challenge with that is the “substantial” cost, said Ramsay.

“We would convene a meeting of local police, first responders, as well as our emergency managers, to talk about what options are there to fund something like this,” he said.

But Ramsay said they’d like to see the 148th be able to assist local officials once more, adding that they’ve been speaking with local, state and federal officials.

Minnesota National Guard Colonel Kevin Olson provided a written statement, saying the 148th’s EOD team was not requested or dispatched for the incident at the Superior hotel on Monday. He added that the guard is deployed at the president’s direction.

“(In) the event that the capability of local public safety assets does not exist or is exceeded, we can respond to assist local authorities,” wrote Olson.

Olson also said that there is “no legal authority to designate a federal military resource as a standing community asset under local control.”

“Only under extenuating specific circumstances termed ‘Immediate Response Authority’ — where a requirement exists to save lives, prevent human suffering or mitigate great property damage — can a federal asset such as the 148th Fighter Wing be dispatched to arrive, assist, render safe and dispose of EOD in conjunction with the local incident commander,” wrote Olson.

Ramsay and Alexander hope there may be some sort of resolution.

“Regionally, we work very closely together, and we’ll figure this out one way or another,” said Ramsay. “It’s just unfortunate. It defies logic that we have a tremendous resource in our city limits that we can’t use because of an obscure rule.”