New York Police to Conduct ‘Dirty Bomb’ Exercise in April

(Updates with date of exercise in second paragraph.)

March 11 (Bloomberg) -- The New York City Police Department and a dozen regional partners will conduct a full-scale exercise early next month to test their ability to detect and intercept radioactive materials that could be used in a terrorist attack.

The exercise will be held from April 5 to April 9 and will involve 150 agencies, including law enforcement and first responders, working in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, Paul Browne, a department spokesman, said in an e-mailed statement.

The exercise is part of the Securing the Cities initiative funded by the U.S. Homeland Security Department, which works to prevent terrorists from infiltrating a major city with a so- called dirty bomb or nuclear device, Browne said.

“The public can expect to observe increased law enforcement activity throughout the tri-state region in the form of traffic checkpoints and grid searches,” Commissioner Raymond Kelly said in the statement. “In particular, increased activity may be observed on roadways and transit hubs leading into New York City and may result in traffic delays in off-peak hours.”

Related News and Information: News on New York and terrorism: {TNI NY TERROR } Bloomberg legal resources: {BLAW } Bloomberg special report on terrorism: {TERR }

--Editor: Peter Blumberg

To contact the reporter on this story: Chris Dolmetsch in New York at cdolmetsch@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: David E. Rovella at drovella@bloomberg.net.