Location: Scotland Yard, London
Type: Police
The National Bomb Data Centre is based inside the counter-terrorism unit at New Scotland Yard and based within the Metropolitan Police.
They carry out investigative work, responding to situations on the ground. In the past, bomb experts have been deployed internationally, to investigate incidents carried out in these places, such as when large quantities of bomb-making materials have been found.
Research is also carried out at the centers facilities. These investigations include tasks such as tracing samples of seized bomb-making materials to their source.
The Data Center is also involved in training activities. For example, the centre has been involved in a project collecting information and objects from previous attacks on London. The Articles have then been used as training aids in order for the local police to learn from these incidents and further their bomb/bomb-making knowledge.
The objects collected by the Center have also aided in raising public awareness as many of these artefacts have been installed in an exhibition. The exhibition is said to demonstrate the changing nature of the terror threat faced in London.
The Bomb Data Center helped develop Dfuze, an international bombing incident program, alongside the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. The database allows law enforcement agencies to exchange and compare information on explosive incidents via encrypted messages about incidents those involved, vehicles used, power sources, initiation system and firearms. Users of the Dfuze system include the UK, Mexico, Colombia, Hong Kong and Singapore.
The system has facilitated a range of information-sharing that is now thought to be able to aid in predicting and preventing bomb incidents.
This profile is part of AOAV’s investigation into counter-IED (C-IED) actors around the globe. To see the list of all C-IED actors recorded by AOAV, see here. To see those engaged in the Middle East, the Sahel, North Africa or other highly impacted countries please see here, here, here, and here respectively. This research was made possible by funding from the NATO Counter Improvised Explosive Devices Centre of Excellence (C-IED COE). To read the full report, ‘Addressing the threat posed by IEDs: National, Regional and Global Initiatives’, see here.
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