Chief: 'We're Definitely More Prepared' Since 9/11

During a recent drill, a vehicle with radioactive material traveled up a highway and police officers, including some from Montville, used devices to detect the radiation and track the car, Montville Police Chief Richard Cook said.

The drill is one of several ways Montville's emergency preparedness has changed since 9/11 with new equipment, more training and greater communication between police departments, Cook said.

Over the past decade, Montville police obtained gas masks, more powerful weapons and training in chemical and biological terrorism, he said.

Police also learned how to set up emergency inoculation facilities and the Towaco Fire Department obtained a decontamination unit to cleanse people who might arrive at the Towaco Train Station with contamination as a result of a terrorist attack, he said.

There are new lines of communication and intelligence is shared more effectively, said Cook, who has been the department's chief for the past seven years.

"We're definitely more prepared than we were," he said.

Cook said most of the funds for the new security measures come from the federal government. U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security, recently announced nearly $158 million for homeland security programs in New Jersey.

Scott DiGirolamo, Office of Emergency Management coordinator for Morris County, said New Jersey has received homeland security grants totaling about $20 million since 2003.

DiGirolamo said the county bought gas masks for every police officer in the county, protective breathing hoods for every first-aider and decontamination equipment for fire departments because 9/11 showed the importance of protecting first responders.

Cheryl Cutrale contributed to this report.