DHS Puts Up $29 Million to Prevent an Attack in NYC Metro Area
The Department of Homeland Security has announced approximately $29 million in grants to prevent a radiological/nuclear attack in the New York City metropolitan area by enhancing regional capabilities to detect and interdict illicit radioactive materials. "Today I was pleased to sign another cooperative agreement through the Securing the Cities initiative with the New York City Police Department," said Domestic Nuclear Detection Office Director Vayl Oxford. "This funding will help the New York metropolitan area to acquire equipment, training, and support to further our mission of preventing dangerous radiological and nuclear materials from entering a high-risk urban area."
The award includes the participation of key Securing the Cities (STC) stakeholders, including: New York Police Department, the State of New York, the State of New Jersey, the State of Connecticut, Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, Rockland Counties, City of New York Fire Department, New York City Department of Environmental Protection, New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, the Port Authority of New York/New Jersey, and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
Providing assistance to state and local jurisdictions in and around major metropolitan areas will enable communities to build capabilities by: leveraging current technologies and deploying them regionally in a coordinated manner; designing, acquiring, and deploying the components of an operationally viable regional architecture for radiological and nuclear detection, focused on state and local jurisdictions; developing and implementing a common, multi-agency Concept of Operations for sharing sensor data and resolving alarms; and training and exercising by the regional agencies to execute operations at a high level of proficiency.
STC was launched by DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff in July 2006 as way to protect a high-risk urban area, such as the NYC region, from a potential radiological or nuclear attack. A previous cooperative agreement for $3.2 million was awarded to the NYPD in September 2007, to build a regional enterprise architecture for the NYC region that will allow real-time sharing of data from fixed, mobile, maritime, and human portable radiation detection systems.