1,000 extra cops for Sept. 11 security
Construction continues at Ground Zero. (Sept. 7, 2011) Credit: AP
One thousand extra police officers -- including scuba divers and counter-sniper teams -- will be part of a massive buildup of NYPD security Sunday for 10th anniversary Sept. 11 ceremonies and appearances by President Barack Obama and former President George W. Bush at the World Trade Center site.
"While no one has uncovered a specific plot, documents found in Osama bin Laden's compound after his death speak to al-Qaida aspirations to carry out an attack on this date," NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly said Wednesday.
A large area around the trade center site will be turned into a "frozen zone," where only official traffic can move, Kelly said. Extra police coverage will also be in place in the subway system, and on Friday there will be a "major deployment of officers" at Grand Central Terminal, Penn Station and the Herald Square subway station, Kelly told a meeting yesterday of law enforcement officials and corporate security staffers at police headquarters in Manhattan.
Cops will use bomb-sniffing dogs to patrol underground garages in lower Manhattan and scuba divers will be examining piers for bombs along the West Side where the USS New York will be docked, Kelly explained. The warship was constructed of steel from the ruins of the twin towers.
Officers will be in the area with radiation-detection equipment and the Lower Manhattan Security Coordination Center -- also known as the "Ring of Steel" -- will be monitoring license-plate readers and hundreds of security cameras around the trade center.
The big security push won't end with Sunday's ceremony, Kelly noted. Officers are also detailed for the coming week at the U.S. Open Tennis Tournament in Queens, and there is extensive security planning the arrival next week of over 130 heads of state for the United Nations General Assembly meeting, he added.
"Over the next few days, we'll continue to receive and analyze a stream of intelligence from our federal partners and from overseas. I can assure you nobody is sitting on information these days," Kelly said.
