White Powder Scares Cost Law Enforcement Time, Money

Oct. 13, 2008— -- Firefighters and federal agents have responded to more than 30,000 incidents involving suspicious powders, liquids or chemicals since 2001 in what authorities say is the terrifying legacy of the anthrax attacks after 9/11.

Postal service and law enforcement officials say thousands of the incidents are hoaxes involving white powder sent through the mail and thousands more are emergency calls to report powder found on countertops, in mailrooms and elsewhere.

"A single incident can warrant a huge response," says Billy Hayes of Washington, D.C.'s fire department. "It gets very expensive, not to mention the inconvenience."

There is no official count of the number of white powder calls in the seven years since letters poisoned with anthrax killed five people. But in just the past year, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service has responded to 2,893 incidents, many of which involved white powder, spokesman Douglas Bem says.

The FBI, which is called when a threatening note is found or when it otherwise appears a crime may have been committed, looked into more than 900 biological incidents from January 2007 to August 2008, "the majority of those incidents being white powder letters," spokesman Richard Kolko says.

So far this year, he says, "several dozen people" have been convicted under federal hoax and domestic terrorism laws. Among them: former nuclear engineer Michael Lee Braun, who was sentenced to more than four years in prison and ordered to pay more than $54,000 in fines and reimbursement for decontamination efforts, after sending dozens of threatening letters to government officials, journalists and businesses. Most of the letters contained white powder that he claimed was poison. It turned out to be baking soda.

"This is no joke and making these threats by mailing even harmless white powder can result in serious jail time for the offender," Kolko says.

None of the incidents since 2001 has involved anthrax or any substance nearly that dangerous.