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Largest U.S. Cities to Receive More Antiterrorism Funding in Fiscal 2005; Other Communities Protest
The U.S. Homeland Security Department has altered its strategy for distributing antiterrorism grants in fiscal 2005 to provide more funding for the largest cities in the United States, the New York Times reported today (see GSN, Dec. 16). The grants are being reallocated, in part, because the department will provide a larger share of the funding directly to cities instead of through a state program designed to provide money to both cities and rural areas, according to the Times. In addition, more possible targets and domestic terrorism incidents, including false alarms, have been added to a database used to calculate threats, homeland security officials said. A city’s population is also now being considered, rather than simply population density. Among the cities that will receive larger grants from the $3.5 billion program are New York, Washington, Los Angeles and Chicago, the Times reported. “We’ve been protecting the nation’s financial and communications center on our own dime,” said New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said. “It’s a national responsibility.” Cities that will receive reduced antiterrorism funding, however, have complained. “We are at the crossroads of America, for cars, for trains, for river traffic,” said Claude Talford, director of emergency management services in the Memphis, Tenn., area. “We are a prime location, a prime target, any way you look at it” (Eric Lipton, New York Times, Dec. 22).
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