Boise Police Bomb Squad practices with new robot at St. Luke's

BOISE, Idaho (CBS2) — The Boise Police Bomb Squad conducted a drill Monday at St. Luke's to practice responding to a suspicious package or bomb.

BPD was able to use a new type of bomb robot, the T5 EOD, in a special response training at the hospital for suspicious packages and possible bombs.

This was St. Luke's first full-scale "Code Yellow" drill. The hospital had suspicious packages placed inside the Bannock Corridor, and several others scattered throughout the hospital.

Rocky, a security dog, initially inspected the packages. He's been trained to detect bomb-making materials and got a positive hit on several of the placed decoys.

The Bomb Squad was called in for a second portion of the drill.

The team used the T5 EOD to retrieve the packages and exray the contents. The team then suited up to get a closer look at how to best dispose of the package.

"Both organizations say hands-on training like this are an important way to practice emergency response skills you hope to never have to use and to improve coordination between the agencies," St. Luke's said. "St. Luke’s also used the drill to test lockdown procedures, conduct security sweeps, measure the ability of St. Luke’s Security Services K-9 unit."