Police department in the New Jersey town that has recently become home to NYSE Euronext’s new data center has received some extra cash from the federal government to better protect the NYSE property.

The Mahwah police department received the US$125,000 grant from the Department of Homeland Security, Patch.com reported. The money came through a Federal Emergency Management Agency program that distributes grants for protection of critical-infrastructure sites and communities that surround them.

Mahwah police chief James Batelli told Patch.com that the department will use the resources to boost security for the data center proactively. “The position of Homeland Security is to be proactive in implementing security measures and not reactive in waiting until they happen,” he said.

Equipment police plans to buy includes radio systems, computers, lighting and surveillance gear. The department will spend some of the funds on preparedness planning.

Batelli said his department had been working on the grant with federal, county and state agencies for more than one year.

In fiscal 2010, FEMA awarded a total of $48m in grants under the program, called Buffer Zone Protection. The agency says purpose of the program is to provide funding for protection of “national critical infrastructure and key resources from terrorist attacks and natural disasters.”

First stocks started trading at NYSE’s data center in Mahwah about one year ago, and in April 2011, the company announced that it had <a data-cke-saved-href=”http://www.datacenterdynamics.com/focus/archive/2011/04/nyse-euronext-completes-new-jersey-move target=” href=”http://www.datacenterdynamics.com/focus/archive/2011/04/nyse-euronext-completes-new-jersey-move target=” _blank”=”“>moved its US trading platforms and exchange services to the New Jersey site completely.

The company built the data center in parallel with another one in Basildon, UK, to consolidate its infrastructure into new state-of-the-art facilities in US and Europe.