LOS ANGELES — There is something that has always fascinated Mike Digby about bombs.
As a 40-year veteran of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, Digby trains the next generation of bomb and arson detail detectives from agencies across the state through hands-on boot camps. He is a renowned expert on the subject and authored the book The Bombs, Bombers, and Bombings of Los Angeles.
"I'm a bomb nerd. It's not just the explosives or the explosions. It's the behavior of the people who like to use bombs. I like to study bombing behavior," Digby said.
When Digby instructs, his mission is not only to convey the power of explosives but to shed light on how to painstakingly investigate bombs and the minds of those who build and deploy them.
"As big as that explosion was, look at what remained," Digby said after a simulated explosion during the training course. He was able to pick up fragments of a milk jug from the bomb site that still had an intact tag sticker. "That's exploitable. That tells us where the jug was purchased, and that's evidence we can jump on right away."
Digby said the students are often excited to experience the explosions so up-close. Most have never seen anything like it off-screen. But he gets the biggest blast out of the clues left behind.
"I would drool if I found this. This shows a blasting cap was used," Digby said as he picked up another piece of debris. "I know they don't get as excited as I do, but it's that important. See, you can tell even without sifting through the debris that it was a high explosive, and if we examine the dirt, you can find out exactly what the compound was."
After the trainees observe some dramatic detonations and examine the aftermath, Digby will have a major test for them. He collects the debris left behind by the simulations, and his students will have to try to put the bomb back together as if they were investigating it.
"These detectives who have never done this before will open it up, they'll lay this can out and reconstruct it, and I'll ask them to tell me where it was bought," Digby said. "They'll have to tell me what explosive was used. In the real world, if we have somebody in custody, how do we prove that person committed that bombing?"
Digby said this work is critical and that the bomb squad in Los Angeles County is extremely busy.
"There's plenty of juveniles experimenting with explosives. There [are] lunatics playing with explosives, there's plenty of work," he said.
Digby added that the teams are fired up to do that work. Some detectives are candidly fed up with partisan politics getting involved and leaders who are unwilling to call out violent domestic extremists. He also worries training courses like this could be defunded in the national movement to minimize law enforcement budgets.
"Detectives who are excellent property crime or violent crime detectives have been thrust into the role of conducting bombing investigations yet have no background in it. Politicians think it's the right thing to do, just to appease certain people, and it's not. You do not want untrained first responders responding to bomb scenes. It's not safe, and it's not smart," Digby said.
And in this volatile climate of social unrest and politically motivated threats of violence, Digby said he feels the work he has dedicated his life to has never been more essential.