Times Square To Be Flooded With Thousands Of Cops For New Year

NEW YORK, NY — The New York Police Department will deploy thousands of officers to Times Square on New Year's Eve to keep the approximately 1 million revelers there safe, NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea announced Friday.

There are currently no credible or specific threats against the annual Times Square celebration, Shea said. Despite the lack of a threat, the police commissioner advised New Yorkers and tourists to remain vigilant.

"There are millions of eyes and ears out there that can aid us in keeping New York City safe," Shea said. "So if anyone sees something, something that doesn't feel right, makes you uncomfortable, tell a police officer."

Shea, who will be overseeing his first New Year's as police commissioner, said the event will be one of the "most well-policed, well-protected celebrations in the entire world."

Police will begin securing Times Square starting at 4 a.m. that day, NYPD Chief of Department Terence Monahan said. Early in the morning, police will shut down the area bounded by West 43rd and 48th streets between Sixth and Eighth avenues. Starting at 11 a.m., the entire Times Square area between 38th and 56th streets will begin to shut down as revelers begin to take their spots in one of 65 viewing "pens," Monahan said. Trucks will be restricted from traveling on Sixth and Eighth avenues during the day.

The New York City Department of Sanitation will lend the NYPD sand trucks to be stationed on crosstown intersections on Sixth and Eighth avenues to prevent vehicle access to the area during the New Year's celebration, Monahan said.

In addition to protecting the ground, the NYPD will also maintain a heavy presence in the air above Times Square. Aviation units will survey rooftops; and depending on the weather, the NYPD may deploy its fleet of drones, Monahan said. Monahan declined to give specifics on how the department's drone fleet works but said its primary use is to take down other, unauthorized drones. Last year's weather prevented the NYPD from deploying drones, Monahan said.

Most of the police assigned to Times Square for New Year's Eve will be uniformed, but some plainclothes officers will also be mixed in throughout the crowd, police officials said. Special units such as heavy-weapons teams from the Emergency Services Unit, canine explosives-detection teams, radiation detection teams and the NYPD bomb squad will also be deployed, Chief of Counterterrorism Martine Materasso said Friday.

Materasso said visitors to Times Square can expect to pass through multiple levels of security before being assigned to their eventual spot for the ball drop. Access points to the viewing pens will be located on 38th, 49th, 52nd, 58th and 59th streets on Sixth and Eighth avenues. Backpacks, duffel bags, packages and alcohol are not permitted inside the celebration area, Materasso said. Spectators can expect to encounter police dogs, heavy-weapons teams and to be wanded more than once during the screening process.

The NYPD is aware that Times Square is a terror target on New Year's Eve, but Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence and Counterterrorism John Miller said that the department has not received any credible or specific threats regarding the event. In years past, there have been threats that the NYPD considered credible, but "this year chatter is down a little bit," Miller said.

"We understand New Year's Eve is a target," Miller said. "It's a big event, it's in Times Square — which is a symbolic target — it's televised. .. but Times Square is probably going to be one of the safest places on the Earth for New Year's Eve."