Terror-related security in New York under-funded: Study

New York, May 6 (ANI): Research shows New York is getting less Homeland Security funding than other American cities.

The Northwestern University study suggests that New York City appears under-funded for protection against terrorist threats. The study also shows Chicago as under-funded while Los Angeles appears over-funded.

The research team analyzed budgets for five fiscal years (2005 to 2009) for 10 major U.S. urban areas under a variety of terrorist-attack scenarios.

The researchers found the funding received by New York in 2009 was around 30 percent of the total money allocated by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to the 10 areas.

According to the Northwestern models, the funding should have ranged between 33 and 49 percent.

This would translate to a net increase of anywhere between 15 million dollars to 92 million dollars above the actual level of funding New York received in 2009.

Lead researcher Sanjay Mehrotra said: "Our new methodology, called robust-weighted sum optimization, offers a different perspective on how Homeland Security funds might be allocated."

"Ultimately, we would like to bring this method to the decision-making processes of Homeland Security and other organizations," added Mehrotra, a professor of industrial engineering and management sciences at Northwestern's McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science. (ANI)