For the first time in recent memory, the Jamestown Police Department is sending a member for training at the FBI’s Post Blast Investigator School.

Public Safety Committee members approved the training request recently while the full council granted its approval Monday.

JPD Det. Craig Damon has asked to attend the FBI’s Post Blast Investigator School from May 19 through May 24 at the State Preparedness Training Center in Oriskany. The course is designed to prepare bombing/arson investigators and forensic technicians in their response to post blast crime scenes through a combination of classroom training and several practical exercises. Students will spend a significant portion of the course collecting and processing evidence from post blast scenes in an outdoor training environment. Damon is one of the Police Department’s Evidence Detectives, and is also a member of the Forensics Investigations Team, meaning this training would be beneficial for him.

“The chief informed us that this is the first time that they’ve sent anyone to this school and that if there was a bomb this person will be trained to handle an incident like that,” said Councilman Jeff Russell, R-At Large and Public Safety Committee chairman.

There is zero cost for the training and lodging and meals and gas will cost approximately $250, to be paid out of the police department’s 2024 gas account.

A second resolution approved by the Public Safety committee involved a training session for the Fire Department. Fire Investigators Andrew Caruso, Ryan Saunders, Adam Akin, and Emily Webster will be traveling to and attending the Annual Fire/Arson Investigation Seminar, to be held at Embassy Suites by Hilton in Saratoga Springs, beginning May 22 and ending May 24. Matthew Coon, deputy fire chief, said the course fulfills the annual training requirements for the firefighters.

“Our normal course of business would be to have the fire investigators go down to the fire academy in the fall,” Coon said. “Due to the ongoing renovation project happening at the academy we can’t confirm the dates that will occur this year. This is a different route that they will be going to receive education from.”

The International Association of Arson Investigators is the organization that is putting on the new training, which Coon said these fire investigators have not been exposed to, and will now be allowed to become members of. This will give them access to other training opportunities. This training will be in lieu of going to the traditional fall seminar.