Ben Mihm spent twenty years of his life as a police officer and homicide detective until that fateful day in February of 2000; he was shot multiple times and wounded in the line of duty.  Fortunately, for him, he was a lucky man and survived the ordeal but realized his law enforcement days with the Glendale Police Department were over.  He was able to draw on his experiences and developed a business that worked closely with police, sheriff and fire agencies (as well as victim families) to clean blood, tissue, and forensic chemicals after a death.  His company, Emergency Response, is registered with the State of California as a Trauma Scene Practitioner and holds a TSW 85 license. 

 Emergency Response specializes in homicide, suicide, natural/accidental death remediation by cleaning, disinfecting, and removal of all contaminated items to restore the site to a non bio-hazardous state.  They also decontaminate police vehicles and jail facilities of grime, blood, and hazardous materials residue.  Our speaker, Ben, also showed slides of homes left in “Pack Rat” conditions where hoarders died and his crew would go through the long process of cleaning up and disposing of trash and materials left behind.  His company uses Pine-sol as the number one killer of bacteria as well as Spray 9 another great disinfectant he recommends. 

 What is the cost of some of his work you ask?  The average clean up cost for a decomposed death scene if wood floors are saturated could run $30,000.  If tear gas canisters are used to force a suspect out of a house, the entire interior becomes contaminated and the chemicals destroy carpet, air conditioning systems, drapes, etc., and can typically cost $70,000 to restore. 

 Our special thanks to Ben Mihm for sharing his unique behind the scenes emergency service business with us. 

(Pat Dolphin)