Federal officials have found additional stimulus funds that will allow the New York Police Department to turn the tide from Tuesday's announcement that it had been passed over for funding, the New York Times reports.
The Department of Justice announced it will funnel $1 billion in alw enforcement grants to more than 1,000 agencies in 50 states. The New York Police Department was not on that list.
Janet Napolitano, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, announced that the city will receive $35 million from a federal transit security grant to hire about 125 recruits.
"Terrorist attacks against mass transit around the world, including in Moscow, Madrid, Mumbai and London, demonstrate the vulnerability of mass transit and its appeal to terrorists as high-visibility targets," said New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly. "That's why the NYPD established bag screening and a host of other measures to protect the millions that use the system every day. These efforts take police officers in significant numbers, which is why today's announcement is so welcome."
The grant money will fund anti-terrorism teams, including overt and covert officers whose activities focus on terrorism prevention, said NYPD Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne.
An additional 125 officers will be assigned to monitor New York subways for radiological and other terrorist threats; the department assigns 2,600 of its 35,600 officers to that duty now. The new recruits will not neccesarily be assigned to anti-terrorism duties, Browne added.
