In Camden County, talk of homeland security after Seaside Park, NYC explosions

Sgt. Brian Madison held a steel pipe weighing about two pounds. The pipe, he said, is similar to one that exploded in a trash can near a 5K race in Seaside Park, N.J., this month.

"Very simple to make," said Madison, commander of the Camden County Bomb Squad. "You don't need any special permits to buy this type of piping."

He displayed the pipe - a training tool for the squad - to about 75 people Thursday at Malandra Hall in Camden, where local and state authorities gathered to discuss homeland security and the explosions that rattled Seaside Park and New York City on Sept. 17.

The device in Seaside Park, which injured no one - in large part due to a delayed starting time for the Semper Five Marine Corps Charity 5K - was triggered by cellphone, officials said. The race had brought out more than 2,000 runners and spectators. Authorities are still investigating why it was targeted.

Police captured Ahmad Khan Rahami two days later in a shootout in Linden, N.J. They said he is responsible for the explosions in Seaside Park and Manhattan, where a bomb left beneath a trash bin injured 29 people.

In Camden County, the bomb squad received an increase in calls about suspicious packages from residents in the days after the Seaside Park and New York incidents.

More often than not, the packages turn out to be nothing. Madison said that in his 12 years on the squad, there has never been a live device discovered.

But he and others at Thursday's event said the public must report unusual activity, whether it's a car that repeatedly shows up at the same spot, or an unattended package. In the latter situation, they said, residents should call 911, evacuate the area, and not touch the package.

"Homeland security really starts with hometown security," said Jerry Martin Jr., an intelligence analyst at the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness.

He said the biggest threats to safety are homegrown violent extremists, or individuals who live in the United States and are inspired by a terrorist group's ideology to carry out attacks.

In Orlando, authorities said, Omar Mateen pledged allegiance to ISIS during his attack on Pulse, a gay nightclub, where he shot and killed 49 people in June. Mateen, whom authorities killed during the standoff, was a U.S. resident.

Before Mateen was killed, he told a negotiator that a U.S. air strike in Iraq had motivated him to attack.

To try to prevent mass-casualty incidents and other crimes, authorities also pointed Thursday to the benefit of surveillance systems.

Camden County Police Capt. Albert Handy said authorities operate at least 150 cameras in Camden to identify suspicious and illegal activity. In addition, police rely on cameras at businesses and homes. Those, he said, build a security grid across the city.

"It's a great asset," he said.

mboren@phillynews.com

856-779-3829 @borenmc