The New York Police Department is testing technology expected to increase its ability to detect and stop potential radiation attacks, Tom Hays reports for the Associated Press.

A command center in Manhattan will monitor 2,000 mobile radiation detectors carried by officers  around the city. Those detectors will send a wireless, real-time alert when there's a reading that signals a dirty bomb threat, the article states.

The police are using a high-bandwidth fiber-optic network to connect all its cameras to a central computer system and is also pioneering "video analytic" software designed to detect threats, such as unattended bags, and retrieve stored images based on descriptions of criminal suspects, according to the AP story.