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WA Police Commissioner Karl O'Callaghan says protocols for handling suspicious packages will be reviewed, after it emerged that police treated a batch of explosives found in Leschenault Estuary as if they were illicit drugs.
An officer received a chemical burn while handing the material. The package later sparked an emergency evacuation of the Police's Curtin House building in central Perth.
The package, which was transferred from Bunbury to Perth in a police car, turned out to contain around 3 kilograms of the volatile explosive TATP.
Dr O'Callaghan said the officers carried out a "presumptive test" which appeared to confirm suspicions that the white powder contained compounds related to illicit drugs.
He insisted that officers had followed the protocols, but said that those protocols will be reviewed over the coming weeks.
"Officer safety is a primary concern for me and we will certainly be reviewing the protocols as a result of this incident," Dr O'Callaghan said.
"But I do want to reiterate that the officer acted in accordance with the information that he received from the presumptive test."
The officer sustained a minor chemical burn to one of his fingers, although Dr O'Callaghan said such injuries can occur while handling either drugs or other chemicals.
"Bear in mind that drugs get cut with all sorts of different chemical compounds, so it's not completely unheard of that you might get an injury from something that is mixed up with a drug," he said.
His comments came after Acting Commander Scott Higgins of the WA Police State Crime Command admitted that police and the public had been placed in danger by the decision to transport the material to central Perth.
Police Union acting president Brandon Shortland said the incident had raised concerns over officers' safety, and that the union would officially raise the issue with the Commissioner.
"We don’t believe there is adequate training at the moment. Our members are not chemists, they are not experienced in hazardous material transportation," he said.
He suggested that experts from the Chemistry Centre of WA should be called to scenes where large amounts of unidentified chemicals are discovered.
He said the officers had done "an excellent job under trying circumstances", saying that anyone using presumptive drug testing kits would have concluded that the material was drug-related.
Dr O'Callaghan said he could not confirm whether Bunbury police officers had also been endangered by the package being brought to their station after it was discovered.
"Clearly if the officers thought or knew that it was an explosive they wouldn't be conveying it in a police car or taking it to a police station," he said.
