NYPD's dirty bomb unit gets a $10M boost
BY ALISON GENDARNY Daily News
June 26th 2009
The NYPD will get at least $10 million for a program to protect the city from dirty bombs, authorities said Thursday.
The Securing the Cities program to pay for radiological detectors had been scrapped for the coming year.
But Reps. Pete King (R-L.I.) and Yvette Clarke (D-Brooklyn) and Sen. Chuck Schumer got $10 million - and possibly as much as $40 million - restored.
The pilot program, now in its third year, arms cops and their vehicles with radiation detectors and helped the NYPD to work with other law enforcement agencies to form a protective ring around the city.
In addition, Schumer got permission for the NYPD to hire 128 cops with federal homeland security stimulus money.
The money was supposed to be used to fill counterterrorism posts - but Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said rookies shouldn't be in the jobs.
Now he can hire rookies for patrol jobs and promote more experienced officers to the counterterrorism efforts.