In Louisville, Ky., members of the Kentucky Explosives Incident Response Task Force (KEIRTF) were federally deputized. The deputization of state and local officers who are members of the task force allows them to assist ATF in explosives-related incidents which may occur outside their normal areas of jurisdiction.

Karl Stankovic, Special Agent in Charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), Louisville Field Division, says the KEIRTF was formed in April 2004 when ATF, Kentucky State Police, Louisville Metro Police Department, the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Division of Police, and the Paducah Police Department signed a Memorandum of Understanding. The KEIRTF is comprised of certified explosives specialists from ATF and members of the hazardous device units (bomb squad) from each of the aforementioned departments.

In the past year-and-a-half that the task force has been in existence, the KEIRTF has been involved in several explosives-related criminal investigations, assisted in the investigation of an armed barricaded subject in Bowling Green, participated in more than a dozen recoveries and subsequent destruction of stolen commercial and military explosives throughout the Commonwealth (the total weight being several thousand pounds), and responded to several bomb threat and/or suspicious package calls.

In addition to investigations, recoveries, and destructions, the KEIRTF has assisted ATF in training numerous first responders and school districts in Kentucky on how to respond to bomb threats and explosives-related and post-blast incidents. Members of the KEIRTF and ATF have also participated in the multiple agency Weapons of Mass Destruction training exercises held throughout the Commonwealth.

For more information on ATF and its programs visit www.atf.gov.