Congress has appropriated fewer dollars for Homeland Security in recent years. Here is a look at how the Illinois Law Enforcement Alert System spent a portion of the funding it received from 2004-2011 for local police assistance:

Mobile command posts

Price tag: $232,000 each

Purchased 13 in 2004 and 2005

Ensure officers have state-of-the-art communication centers during emergency events. Each trailer is interoperable, which means any number of them can be connected to form a larger command post. The trailers were distributed to different sites around the state, including Champaign County.

Armored trucks

Price tag: $221,685 each

Purchased nine in 2006

Impenetrable to bullets, the armored trucks allow officers to closely engage an active shooter with minimal risk of injury. They can be sealed so officers can enter a contaminated environment. The nine were distributed around the state.

Bomb robots

Price tag: $136,239 each

Purchased three in 2008

The robots were purchased to assist ILEAS' bomb teams, which received a total of about $5.8 million in equipment and training in '09. ILEAS purchased a fourth robot in 2009 for $111,454.

This story appeared in print on Feb. 5.