QPS Open Day: How to meet the bomb robots keeping Qld safe

Brisbane’s bomb squad has successfully neutralised several bombs in the past 12 months, keeping Queenslanders safe without them even knowing it.

Brisbane’s bomb squad has successfully neutralised several bombs in the past 12 months, keeping Queenslanders safe without them even knowing it.

In the last financial year Brisbane’s Explosive Response Team responded to three jobs on average a month.

It comes as five new remote positioning vehicles-medium, also known as bomb robots, have been spread out across the state.

The total statewide incident response and total officer hours has almost doubled from 676 hours for the 2023-24 financial year to 1176 hours for the financial year 2024-25.

The robots can attend jobs like unscrewing lids for a suspicious item or testing for poisonous gases.

The Bomb Squad and one of the robots will be at the Bob Atkinson Operational Capabilities Centre this Saturday for the Queensland Police Service open day.

Officer-in-charge Senior Sergeant Andrew Rowan said officers were responding to decent jobs, on average, once a fortnight.

“That’s a call-out where a full response has to happen,” he said.

Senior Constable Jess Dwyer with PD Ebony and an RPV-M bomb robot. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen / Courier Mail

“Over the last 12 months, we’ve had some quite serious incidents across the state. They’re ones that we definitely can’t get into but, hopefully we don’t see that type of thing again, and they were quite unusual.”

Sen Sgt Rowan said the majority of the work done was behind the scenes.

“Getting in, getting out, and there’s no attention brought to it at all,” he said.

“If attention is brought to one of our jobs, we still then try and do it in a really minimised fashion, because obviously, it is concerning.

“It does cause people anxiety, seeing people walk around in a bomb suit and have bomb robots driving around the place.

“When we’re doing that, it’s again, part of the right amount of resources at the right time without overwhelming the situation.

“Essentially what we’re going to do is get in and get out and get the business district back so the public can move on about their business as quickly as possible, with the least amount of disruption.”

The Brisbane Explosive Ordnance Response Team’s jobs have increased from 28 incidents and 676 hours in 2024-24 to 37 incidents and 1009 hours, equating to three a month.

“The tool (robot) is being used more often than the previous options, because they’re a lot more confident with the use of it, and they’re more confident that you can do the job,” he said.

Officers try to remain low key on jobs to avoid alarming the public. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen / Courier Mail

“Whereas in the past, the systems weren’t perfect. There was a reluctance, it’s easier if we just do it another way.

‘Rather than sending a police officer up to have a look, we would actually send the robot up to have a look at that device, whether it’s a box or a bag, and typically it’s something left in a position that’s suspicious, it’s not supposed to be there.”

There is also an open day in Townsville on Saturday, August 2

“You’ll have all the specialist units together. It’s 20-odd specialist units,” he said.

“It’s a great opportunity for not just people interested in joining the service, but just the members of the public to actually have access to these items.”

Originally published as QPS Open Day: How to meet the bomb robots keeping Qld safe