Homeland Security Boosts State's Transit Security Funding

The Department of Homeland Security is sharply increasing anti-terror funding for the New York State transit system, officials announced today.

The funding will increase 56% to $153.3 million, Homeland Security Secretary Chertoff said during a press conference at Grand Central Station.

Most of the money will go toward protecting the subway system in New York City, officials said. In a change in past practice, roughly $30 million will go directly to the police department. In previous years, all federal transit funds were given to the Metropolitan Transit Authority.

The police department will use the funds to deploy heavily armed units into the subway system beginning next month, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said. Many of the units will be accompanied by bomb-sniffing dogs, he said.

The anti-terror funding will also be used to better train transit officers and workers, as well as to install more security cameras in the subway system, Governor Spitzer said.

New York received $98.2 million in transit security funding in 2007, which was about 41% of the national share. The funding announced today represents about 45% of the national total.