NYPD Commissioner Touts Counter-Terrorism Unit

Philip Bunnell - Talk Radio News Service

New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Tuesday at the Center for National Policy the New York Police Department has handled numerous terrorism threats in the wake of the September 11 attacks, including the recent terror scares on the New York Subway and in Times Square.

The NYPD has stopped “11 terrorist plots in eight and a half years,” said Commissioner Kelly, but noted that “NYPD has not given up an inch in its fight against crime,” citing a decrease in crime rates since 2001, despite losing around 6000 officers during that same period.

Kelly credited positive results to NYPD’s extensive counter-terrorism unit, noting that New York was “the first police department in the country to have [its] own counter-terrorism unit.” The commissioner said New York’s counter-terrorism unit has “hired a team of civilian analysts, experts in military intelligence and foreign affairs [who] follow trends in terrorist tactics.”

Notably, Kelly said that NYPD’s counter-terrorism unit has recruited from within their own ranks “some 700 certified speakers of 45 sensitive languages,” to assist in counter-terrorism measures.  In addition to the multi-lingual counter-terrorism unit, NYPD has sent senior officers to “11 international cities [who] work closely with the local police agencies if a terrorist attack occurs.”

Kelly stressed the importance of inter-agency cooperation, which he called “a must,” for combating terrorism, using NYPD’s information sharing strategy, where data is despersed to agencies across the country, as an example.  Kelly also said that the NYPD’s advanced surveillance systems, which have software that can seek out suspicious items or persons, and a random screening net in the subway has helped keep New York safe.

When asked if the New York model could be implemented with success in other large cities, Kelly said that “he could only speak for New York,” and that it was first necessary to “take the pulse of the local community,” to see if they feel threatened, noting that New York City had already been attacked twice.