The Johnson County Metro Bomb Squad is making sure it's up-to-date with its security tactics. The team trained today in Iowa City and its members went through several real-life explosive drills.
This comes a week after police say Cesar Sayoc sent pipe bombs to a number of prominent Democrats across the country, including Barrack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
"Obviously with terrorism stuff across the country we come across small things that try to simulate those things," said Johnson County Metro Bomb Squad Commander Doug Roling.
"Every pipe bomb is different based on the type of materials, size, density, types of triggers," said Joel Miller of the North Liberty Fire Department. "Everything is completely different."
Roling said he mostly sees more homemade materials than anything come up in cases.
"A lot of the stuff is homemade explosives," said Miller. "People experiment with things that they shouldn't have. Like when they search the internet they pick up things like pipe bombs and things like homemade chemicals. Those are very dangerous and often times people get hurt."
Roling said, while he believes there's an increase in homemade bombs, the overall trend has remained the same.