No, It’s Not A Will Smith Film

Rather, it’s just the police department using up some of that extra cash lying around:

The city’s Police Department and the F.B.I. will collaborate tonight in a joint counterterrorism exercise in Queens, testing New York’s ability to intercept a so-called dirty bomb.

Around 300 city police officers and 400 employees from the F.B.I. will work together in the exercise. The main events are scheduled to take place between 9 p.m. tonight and 4 a.m. on Wednesday morning on the Clearview Expressway.

Police say traffic delays on the expressway are anticipated until 1 a.m. Wednesday.

. . .

During tonight’s exercise authorities intend to use a detection device to intercept a mock bomb in a vehicle on the expressway.

Once the mock bomb is located, the aim is to transfer it to Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn and practice the procedures required to make it safe.

. . .

In 2007 the federal government created the Securing the Cities initiative, and pioneered the program in New York.

The aim of Securing the Cities was to establish a cordon of radiation sensors 50 miles outside New York to detect an inbound dirty bomb, and since 2007 the police have already received more than $53 million in Homeland Security Department grants to implement the project.

However, this year’s federal budget proposed to eliminate Securing the Cities funding in 2010.

On Tuesday, Mr. Kelly suggested that the timing of the exercise, demonstrating the potential to intercept a dirty bomb, is no co-incidence.

“The thing we are concerned about is the zeroing out of the Securing the Cities budget,” he said. “It is very germane to the exercise tonight.”