Fed grant boosts NYPD anti-nuke net

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By Alison Gendar
The Daily News

NEW YORK — Two thousand cops will carry GPS-outfitted radiation detectors as part of an effort to prevent a nuclear attack on the city.

The equipment is part of a $29.5 million federal homeland security grant to the NYPD announced Tuesday.

The money will install a network of mobile and stationary detectors on highways, sea lanes, bridges and tunnels throughout the city, Long Island, the lower Hudson Valley and New Jersey.

The program will also distribute some 4,000 personal radiation detectors to participating law enforcement agencies, authorities said.

The NYPD will get about 1,000 of the new devices, roughly doubling the number of hand-held radiation detectors now in use.

Each device will be equipped with GPS and Bluetooth capabilities, capable of feeding readings into a new $6 million operations center being built next to the NYPD's headquarters in lower Manhattan.

The NYPD hired Microsoft to develop an improved Virtual Earth mapping system to help track each radiation detector from the operations center.

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said that while the NYPD's goal is to derail any attack in its early stages, "We have to be prepared for the possibility that terrorists succeed in obtaining a nuclear device," he said.

"We want the ability to intercept it or a dirty bomb. This funding helps us do both," Kelly said.

The New York City metro area is the first location chosen to launch the "Securing Our Cities" program, U.S. Sens. Chuck Schumer and Hillary Clinton said as they announced the award.

Copyright 2008 The Daily News