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Sheriffs department to spend $8.9 million on anti-terror equipment, training and intelligence

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LOS ANGELES, Calif.–The Sheriff’s Department will receive the lion’s share of a $8.9 million grant to Los Angeles County from the Department of Homeland Security, in an allocation approved by the Board of Supervisors.

The county money, part of a 2010 federal grant of $69.9 million to the Los Angeles-Long Beach Urban Area, is intended to address the unique equipment, training and planning needs of large urban areas in managing terrorism threats.

The Sheriff’s Department plans to use $6.2 million for equipment, such as an aerial video downlink technology, mobile surveillance cameras, tactical robots, radiation detection devices and bomb suits.

Almost 70 percent of the total will be spent on the region’s Joint Regional Intelligence Center, staffed by federal, state and local intelligence analysts and investigators responsible for the 44,000-square-mile territory surrounding Los Angeles. The center, opened in 2006, is the largest among some 40 facilities nationwide and is used to coordinate about 200 agencies in seven counties.

About $2.4 million of the grant will go toward salaries and benefits, and $1.9 million toward equipment and training.

The county’s Office of Emergency Management will get $590,000, and the rest of the money will go to the departments of Health Services, Fire, Public Health and Mental Health.

The New York Times recently estimated that about $360 billion has been spent nationwide on homeland security since 9/11.

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