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Helpful hints for protecting yourself from ‘booby traps’

Following the recent report of California officers being targeted by booby traps, here are seven things to keep in mind that can help protect you from falling prey to hidden traps.

1. Look up. While searching a house during a raid in the Midwest, officers noticed an open closet door that blocked the view of a window. Before closing the door so they could see the outside view, an officer wisely looked up and happened to spot two pieces of metal stretching from the top of the door to the top of the window ledge and piled high with other heavy chunks of metal and a hammer. Had the door been closed, the pile would have crashed down on officers’ heads. Use this incident as a reminder to look up before closing doors. It’s also important to keep in mind that fact that suspects have also been known to hide in areas above officers’ heads. Don’t just focus on what’s in front of you and behind you. Remember to look up.

2. Look down. During a search, remember to stay alert to what’s at ground level. If you’re in a house, do you see any suspicious looking floorboards? Any unusual sagging in rugs that could indicate they’re covering a hole? Any trip wires stretched across your path of travel? Anything sticking up from the floor, like nails or other sharp objects?

If you’re conducting an outside search, stay alert to ground traps as well. If you’re walking a trail do you see any odd piles of brush that could be covering a hole? Anything strung across the trail…like barbed wire? While responding to a call of a party in the woods, officers in a western state found strips of barbed wire strung across a trail at ankle level rigged to slice officers’ flesh. They also ran into a log placed across the trail. When an officer stepped over it, he fell into a hole covered on the other side. His injuries were minor, but had he been running, it could have been another story.

There’s an understandable desire to keep your head up at all times, but remember that glancing down is important, too.

3. Look under. During a drug raid, officers found strips of cardboard laced with razor blades taped under a sink, a vanity and under entertainment center cabinets. They were placed there by a suspect who had observed officers running their hands along those areas looking for contraband during previous visits. His goal was to slice the fingers of an unsuspecting officer doing just that. This time, luckily, officers looked before they swiped. Keep that in mind the next time you’re preparing to stick your hands into an area that’s not readily visible. Take the time to look first.

4. Be careful of lights and switches. When searching a house, remember that suspects have been know to rig lights with shotgun shells and other explosives designed to discharge once a light switch is thrown and a charge runs through the light. Whenever possible, rely on your own lighting until you’re able to check lights in the house for signs of booby trapping.

5. Don’t inhale. If you find an unknown (or even a labeled, supposedly recognizable) substance in a container resist the temptation to sniff it, which for some can be a habitual action. There are a number of chemical substances that when inhaled can cause serious damage. A suspect bent on harming you could leave such a substance out in the open as a kind of booby trap with the idea that you’ll fall prey to a temptation to take a whiff.

6. Don’t ignore odors. If you’re in a house or building and you smell any kind of suspicious odor (that includes obvious odors like natural gas as well as any odor that you can’t readily identify) don’t ignore it. It’s not beyond reason to believe that a suspect could rig an explosion by leaking combustible materials into a site that might be a target for a search.

7. Remember that people can be “booby trapped”, too. When searching suspects, take appropriate safety measures to protect yourself from sharp objects in pockets as well as rigged in other areas, like the inner rims of baseball caps and inside waistbands, which suspects have been known to lace with razor blades.

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