A New York City police officer known for cracking the Zodiac killer copycat case 15 years ago has been named to work as an expert on the House Homeland Security Committee, the Wall Street Journal reports. Joseph Herbert, 53, who heads the police department’s Intelligence Operations and Analysis Section, will work as a counterterrorism fellow on the Homeland Security Committee chaired by Long Island Republican Peter King.
The committee has oversight of the Department of Homeland Security. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg long has argued the city has been shortchanged by federal spending formulas that don’t take into account the risks the city faces of future attacks. “I think he will bring a sense of on-the-ground reality to give us firsthand knowledge as to what the threat is to local governments,” King said. “Probably the best thing about it is, he will be there to tell us if something sounds good on paper, but in reality it works differently.”