1149 S. Broadway Street, 5th Floor
Los Angeles, CA 90015
213-485-2153
The Hazardous Materials Unit is a specialized Unit consisting of personnel from varying backgrounds. The Unit is headed by a supervisor and is staffed with members trained in Environmental Crimes investigations.
The Unit conducts all investigations of environmental crimes. The Unit is also heavily involved in the enforcement of Federal Hazardous Materials Transportation Regulations.
Unit members conduct numerous "road-side" inspections of trucks to ensure compliance with applicable State and Federal laws and safety issues of dangerous goods transported in commerce.
All members of the Unit are trained and certified at the Technician/Specialist level, the highest level of training offered for hazmat emergency responders in the State of California through the State of California Office of Emergency Services (OES), California Specialized Training Institute (CSTI). The Unit conducts numerous educational classes in "Hazardous Materials, First Responder Awareness," which stress the importance of safety concerns when dealing with HAZMAT incidents.
As the primary investigators of environmental criminal acts, the Unit is called upon to conduct in-depth criminal investigations, often times in contaminated, life threatening atmospheres while wearing proper protective clothing. They collect and preserve evidence required for successful criminal prosecutions. The Unit members complete follow-up investigations, prepare reports and search warrants, then present investigative results to prosecuting attorneys for criminal filing considerations.
The HAZMAT Unit is also a part of a joint task force which includes the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and other agencies responsible for investigating Domestic Terrorism involving Nuclear, Biological and Chemical (NBC) Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD). Our function in the task force is to protect the public by conducting evidence searches in the contamination zone. Unit personnel have completed extensive training in NBC/WMD operations, including "live" Chemical Warfare Nerve Agent training at the United States Army's Chemical Defense Training Facility, Fort McClellan, Alabama. The nerve agents used in the course included "GB" (Sarin) and "VX". Both chemicals are weapons grade, lethal nerve agents.
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