The Domestic Nuclear Detection Office (DNDO) last week awarded a $29.5 million to the New York City Police Department for the purchase of radiation detection equipment and related communications and training under the Securing The Cities (STC) initiative.
“This funding will help the New York metropolitan area to acquire equipment, training, and support to further our mission of preventing dangerous and nuclear materials from entering a high-risk urban area,” DNDO Director Vayl Oxford said in a statement.
The funding is broken into three main buckets. Nearly $16 million will be used to purchase a range of mobile and portable radiation detection equipment. This will include pager, handheld and backpack style devices as well as larger mobile detectors.
Just over $6 million of the funding will be to enhance communications for real-time asset monitoring between a command center and the operators using the devices. The rest of the money, $7.5 million, will be used for training.
The main types of operations that various agencies around the region will be doing include commercial vehicle inspections, sweeping operations, scanning at toll booth plazas, threat-based and event-based operations such as the annual New Year’s Eve celebration, and waterborne operations targeted toward small maritime craft.
STC stakeholders participating in the award include the New York Police Department, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester and Rockland Counties, the New York Fire Department, the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, the Port Authority of New York/New Jersey, and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.