NYPD: Department will launch biggest deployment of the year Monday for West Indian American Day Parade and J'Ouvert
New York City Mayor Eric Adams, at the podium, and NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, second from left, appear at a news conference in New York City on Aug. 17. Credit: AP/Uncredited
Expecting a crowd of one million at the West Indian American Day Parade on Monday, the NYPD will have its largest security detail of the year on duty to assure the event — as well as the related J’Ouvert celebration — are safe, NYPD commissioner Jessica Tisch said Friday.
"This will be the biggest police deployment of the year, even biggest than New Years Eve, Times Square, even bigger than the deployment for July 4th," Tisch said at a pre-parade news conference with Mayor Eric Adams in Brooklyn.
Tisch wouldn’t disclose the exact number of officers who will be on duty but it will be in the thousands, including members of the emergency services unit, counterterrorism command, the bomb squad and drone operations. Tisch also noted that while many officers will be in uniform, others will not be and that police dogs and police helicopters will also be deployed.
"This is a beautiful, beautiful activity," Adams said of the parade and vents. "This is the largest celebration in the country ... We are excited by the music and fashion and fund associated with it. And this community knows how to throw a great party."
Historically, the parade, said to be the largest celebration of West Indian culture in the nation, has had its share of violence, including a number of homicides. In 2024, a shooting which police believe was gang related led to the wounding of five persons ranging in age from 16 to 69 years old in the immediate vicinity of the parade around Eastern Parkway. The incident prompted the department to consider shutting down the parade but the event continued as planned.
The massive police deployment for the West Indian celebration comes on top of an additional 2,500 officers being surged around city parks and high crime areas in the wake of recent shootings last week, which led to one death and a number of injuries.
The officers will be on foot posts in areas were gang violence or gun violence occurred, explained Tisch.
While police officials and Adams have in recent weeks touted the record drops in shootings and homicides, the spate of recent incidents, mainly in the Bronx, has required some quick measures to keep the violence in check.
"This is a massive deployment and we really have done a lot of this all summer but because we now have those thousand additional officers [from the police academy class], this is an additional foot post deployment than we have ever done in the past on this weekend," Tisch noted.
In terms of the weekend events, Tisch said that the J’Ouvert celebration will begin at about 6 a.m.. on Monday and last until about 11 a.m. The parade will kickoff around 11 a.m. and will tie-up traffic in the streets around Eastern Parkway for hours. Tisch advised spectators to rely on public transportation.
To help with security around the parade route, the commissioner said there will be security "moot" of sorts along the roadway, consisted of double line of barricades instead of a single one.
Anthony M. DeStefano has been a reporter for Newsday since 1986 and covers law enforcement, criminal justice and legal affairs from its New York City offices.
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