We've all heard how 3,000 surveillance cameras, not to mention at least a hundred license plate readers, will be installed in downtown Manhattan, as part of the city's ring-of-steel like security initiative to prevent terrorist attacks. But the NYPD also announced that radiation detectors will be put into place as far as 50 miles from the city to help identify dirty bombs.

In fact, the ring of steel seems to be getting another "ring of protection," which is what the NY Times calls the partnership with local police departments. As the Department of Homeland Security's director of domestic nuclear detections says, "Once a nuclear weapon is already in Manhattan, it’s too late."

Apparently the NYPD feels that smaller police departments are "ideally suited to monitor commuter rail lines, waterways and especially high-volume routes into and around the city," because their communities' crime rates are low. Police officers outside of NYC are being given hand-held radiation detectors as well as training in radiation detection. Rockland County Sheriff James Kralik explained, "We’re trying to insure that the terrorists don’t come in this direction, and don’t reach the city through us."

The Times reports that the NYC-and-outlying regions program is a pilot for the Department of Homeland Security. It will be reviewed in 2009 and may be considered for other cities.