Houston area getting more Homeland Security funds
Anne Maria Kilday and Matt Stiles have the story for the Chronicle:
The federal government will boost anti-terrorism funding for the Houston area this year by about 50 percent, providing $25 million locally, officials were scheduled to announce today.
[snip]
"Between the Port of Houston, chemical and oil industries and the fact that Houston is one of the nation's largest cities, I am very pleased the (agency) increased the amount of money for the city since last year," said U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin, whose district includes much of west Harris County.
[snip]
The city of Houston received roughly $8 million in such grant money last year, and spent it completing a study on how to make emergency radios operable with other entities such as Harris County.
The money bought the first stages of a video-monitoring safety program designed to pipe camera feeds from roadways and other public locations to a central command center for monitoring.
In past years, the city used the money for a police helicopter, patrol car computers and suits to protect first responders from a chemical attack.
Dennis Storemski, who directs Mayor Bill White's homeland security office, said this year's funds would help buy a radio tower, more camera infrastructure and staffers at a new intelligence "fusion" center where databases from various law enforcement agencies can be analyzed.
KHOU-11 previously reported on HPD's outdated emergency radio system, when it discovered a taxpayer-funded study the city had not released to the public. The 2003 study noted that the city's aging analog radio system was inadequate and needed replacing at a cost of $150 million. Using Homeland Security funds to purchase a new radio tower would seem to check one item off that list.
It's been a while since we've heard anything more on where the city stands regarding the purchase of the (much-needed) digital emergency radio system, a system the county already has in place, but it should definitely be one of the city's top priorities.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 07/18/07 04:14 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Sphere | Comments (3)
Previous Entry | Home | Next Entry
Trackback
Unfortunately, abusive spammers have forced us to disable incoming trackback pings. The Technorati link should list related posts. Feel free to drop us an email if you've linked a post and would like to let us know about it.
ADVERTISING
DISCLAIMER
All content © 2004-08, blogHOUSTON and the respective authors.
blogHOUSTON.net is powered by Nucleus.
Site design and Nucleus customization are by Kevin Whited.