Live: NYC Mayor speaks about New Year’s security preparations

Live: NYC Mayor speaks about New Year’s security preparations

We yeah 10 minutes way around Sh iide I read I very told me to tell you that no really my gosh I heard the story that’s who they hired as theeler For this you’ll be f I think that’s the only They bring him up 43rd Are hi Matt hey Matt nice to meet you Tom just know You says the mayor’s late Yester but she was telling me you know you Hard it’s the TR you Like Any Going GL For I many But um they were like so so good got and great yeah can you your Back ch yes I know it’s actually not bad this Spe I mean I guess I don’t Know 15 minutes lat know There are only two types of Americans those who live in New York and those who wish they could you got [Applause] This my name is you know where we good good all right good afternoon everybody excited to be here to kick off our New Year’s Eve 2024 security press conference we’re looking forward to a happy safe and prosperous New Year to piggyback on a very safe year

For the NYPD in New York city so without further Ado I want to kick it over to the honorable mayor Eric Adams thanks thanks so so so much uh Deputy Commissioner shepher and really thank all of you uh no one does it better than the New York City Police

Department and bringing in a new year uh hundreds of thousands of people will be out here lined up and no matter how often we see it you never get used to it the excitement remains over and over again again and we are really looking forward to bringing in

2024 here in Time Square Time Square want to thank the team the entire uh uh dot NYPD FDNY and you know the Time Square Alliance this is their show this is their Super Bowl this is their opportunity to show what they do best uh when the lights are on on Broadway the

Lights are on in New York City and the lights are on in America this is America City and we are proud to host this major event uh every year thousands of people come here and they enjoy themselves and we only have one ask uh spend as much

Money as possible leave all that money right here in New York City and we want everyone to have a great time we want everyone to uh follow the rules uh we want to make sure uh that we continue to move in the right direction in this city

Uh crime is down and jobs are up up we are trending in a direction that we committed and promised ourselves that we were going to do two years ago when this Administration came into place when we came here into office you don’t you love New York when you came into office every

Day we wanted to deliver on that on that on that promise events of this size we know how to safeguard events of this size uh we have major events going on at one time in the city and with the collaboration of all of our agencies and

Organizations we get it right and we do it right all the time and this includes a patrol service bureau a South a Transit Bureau intelligence and counterterrorism Bureau and the Special Operation division we will be out here with our Kines our horsebacks our drones our helicopters our boats the full

Complement of our Public Safety apparatus will will be on display now we’re urging everyone if you are here for the first time you know you’re not going to drive during this weekend public transportation is open we are really encouraging everyone to use mass transit and there’s certain items you

Cannot bring into the safety zone Zone like large backpacks and alcoholic beverage are strictly prohibited so please check before coming in so you won’t be turned away we’ll find out of the best routes to come in and the best time to be here we know some folks line

Up early in the day and remain here throughout the day of you know more power to you uh and we really love your enthusiasm and we encourage you to have a lot of fun this weekend so I’m wishing everyone a healthy safe productive 2024 uh this is a a great year that

We’ve had here in the city with all of the obstacles and challenges and we are looking forward to leaning into 2024 and continue to do the things that we do bring down crime and increase employment and know that this is the safest big city in America New York City thank you

Very much thank you TQ our next speaker will be our chief of Department Jeffrey Madre got it right difference a year makes good afternoon everyone thank you mayor Adams to all of our agency partners and to president Tom Harris uh let me Begin by stating very clearly there are no specific credible

Threats to our New Year’s Eve festivities or to the city of New York in general and I’m going to directly quote the mayor no one does it like the NYPD this is one of the most wellp policed best protected events each year planning for this year’s celebra

Celebration began as soon as our as our partners from San ation cleaned up the last piece of confetti that fell here nearly a year ago each year we handle this enormous undertaking all while maintaining our ability to respond to calls for service throughout all five burrows and we don’t do this alone we’re

In lock step with our federal state our local agency partners including the Times Square Alliance to ensure a safe and enjoyable event for all there will be thousands of uniform police officers including the 631 officers that graduated this morning from the police academy right here in the city our special operations our

Counterterrorism units our canine units will be deployed all throughout Time Square and throughout the city there will be a large contingency of officers you won’t see as well many in plane clothes ensuring the safety of our city and watching overhead will be our Aviation unit and our drone deployment

Package if you’re joining us here in Times Square the crossroad Crossroads of the world I encourage you to use public transportation we will be guided into one of our pin where our police officers will be there that will be wanding everyone for safety just a reminder again no backpacks no duffel bags large

Packages no alcohol these are all prohibited items but our officers will be there and they will be there to protect you our ipd officers will be keeping everyone in attendance safe so you can celebrate ringing in the new year in the greatest city in the world

So with that I wish you all a happy and prosperous new year we’ll see you this weekend and if you’re looking for any more information you can tune into our social media Pages at NYPD news you can look at the Midtown South prence page the Manhattan South burrow uh burrow

Commands page they will all be updated with more information about this weekend so thank you all all right our next speaker is our partner and friend president of the Time Square Alliance Mr Tom Harris thank you very much thank you Chief Madre and thank you mayor Adams I

Was looking at some of our pedestrian Counts from two years ago when mayor Adams took office and we were averaging 150,000 people per day in Time Square our hotels were only at 38% thanks to the the work of the Adams Administration we’re regularly welcoming over 300,000

People a day and our hotels are in the high 80s low 90s and a lot of weekends they’re sold out so thank you very much mayor Adams you don’t get enough credit for all that’s right in the city we’re here to talk about New Year’s Eve uh we

Are very happy to welcome everyone back to Times Square this year two years ago before mayor Adams came in it was a reduced crowd we are expecting hundreds of thousands of people in Time Square this year and thanks to the hard work of the men and women of the New York City

Police Department they will have a safe experience so we have a great show we have 11 live performances in Time Square the show is going to start at 6:00 at night and end at 12:15 and again shout out to the members of the New York City Police Department and all the city

Agencies that we’ll make sure that everyone has a safe fantastic experience thank you all right with that we’ll take some on topics questions for New Year’s Eve and then I’ll direct you to somebody on our leadership team that can that can answer CBS This is for uh mayor Adams um

Mr Mayor we’ seen protest disrupt since Thanksgiving Day Parade we seen protest disrup Street lighting how that the same thing will happen again in New Jersey well um you know this department experienced uh you know well over a thousand protests uh uh several hundred um over 400 since October 7th uh and

Unlike other municipalities the ability to make these protests as peaceful as possible they were successful in doing so uh we have witnessed that there’s a small number of people who are trying to embed themselves in some of the protests and bring about disruption it’s not

Going to be Toler it’s not going to be accepted uh this is a city will we clear there’s no room for hate and there’s no room for uh uh breaking low you break the law you’re going to have to deal with the New York City Police Department in the process of the New

York City Police Department did an amazing job during the tree lighting uh with uh individuals trying to disrupt the tree lighting they executed a wellth out plan and they going to do so this time as well U we people are going to come here bring in a New Year enjoy

Themselves in a safe way and those who want to peacefully protest they have the right to do so but you’re not going to do it at the expense of disrupting those for coming here to peacefully bring in a new year a year ago for many people we

Talked with here said they feel very safe coming new year de make that clear off the top was pointed out that last year outside of the security Zone there waset attack is that having any impact on plan this year particularly outside of the well I I think that you know if ever you

Want to see a well executed uh law enforcement apparatus uh that’s a perfect example of it you had a individual who assaulted two police officers and at the same time we were minutes away from one of the largest events of the city uh would host uh and the police responded accordingly the

Necessary person Personnel responded to the threat they terminated the threat and remaining police agency they knew what their assignments were what their posts were and they made sure that they did not allow that threat to take their attention away from that we looked at that uh Deputy Mayor Banks um spoke with

The uh police department personnel we did an evaluation we’re going to make sure we continue to be laser focused not to be distracted when you have a threat of that magnitude cuz this person assaulted police officers so there’s a natural um muscle memory that you want

To respond to that but you saw really just the opposite you saw a well professional trained police department and uh inspector Winer uh and uh the entire team over at Intel uh they are monitoring all the usual chatter and the suspect and as the chief stated there

There are no specific threats to the city but as we saw last year you don’t have to have a specific threat to get a threat and we’re going to be ready to respond to that threat mores what’s let me let me give it to the often quoted Chief

Showell I guess I got to come up with a new quote uh just like our uh police office there at the tree light they did a great job that night of keeping protesters out from a lawful assembly from a lawful Behavior so we’re going to we’re going to mirror that with some

Changes but our cops will do just a great job as the tree line to keep them off our perimeter and have the celebration continue for 2024 news thanks um just to Circle back on the protest question uh real quick do you have any sense of how large You’re

Expecting these protests to be and then um separately on a different matter Mr Mayor that relates to protests earlier in the week you were talking about the NYPD settlement that related to that 2020 lawsuit you were saying um you’ve always considered that a very troubling settlement in terms of law enforcement

Activity and protests when the city entered that settlement though you actually you braed the settlement and said it struck the right Ballance so I’m just wondering kind of what changed there why didn’t you change your mind about well cuz people exploit the intention of allowing individuals uh to peacefully protest I

Think that people exploit that and we’re seeing some of that exploitation now and when you do an analysis of it uh although you’re not allowed to block the bridges and prevent pedestrian movement uh you’re saying when you have 5,000 people deciding to block the bridge and

All you can do is issue them a summon uh I think is an encourages Behavior to be disruptive in the city and I don’t want to ever encourage Behavior to be disruptive in the city who’s going to talk about the so I mean the C the groups that have

Regularly pal uh protested in regards to Israel Palestine have been a thousand to two to 5,000 on occasion and uh you know we’re prepared for them at any number we’re prepared for different groups from different places and you know we will make sure this event stays safe and Peaceful ABC So we’re expanding our Zone from 6 Avenue to 8th Avenue from 41st Street to 57th Street that gives us a buffer zone so we can move quickly if we have to like last year and also gives us a uh a space between protesters not to come in here

This is just for anyone in the NYPD how important is it to monitor social media upgrade from some of these different protesters or just people who might be coming out here on New Year’s Eve so so we monitor social media 365 days a year to just determine any event

In the city and and obviously when you have a crowd of a million people coming to a location it’s vital and it’s part of what we do every day and uh we work with all our partners lot of people have eyes on it just to make sure that we’re

We’re watching all the different platforms you anybody posting about you know possible protest have you seen that already and then what do you do you see it pop up there’s there’s a protest every day in New York city so there’s certainly going to be a protest on use

Typology is this year and being implemented for junior team uh the best cash you want to go into that we’re going to use the um same footprint that we did for the tree lighting we’re going to have um two Drone trucks strategically parked along uh the uh actual New Year’s Eve uh

Festivities and we’re going to have drones deployed around the Outer Perimeter so we can monitor the protest and uh uh potential protest that are coming in real time these drones uh give us the ability to get a bird’s eyee view of exactly what’s going on and it gives

Us an ability for the leadership team here you see behind me a front row seats to the uh evolving incidents that that may take place thank you anybody else topic just where’s commissioner kaban I’m noticing he’s not here today uh he uh was in uh Dominican Republic uh he’ll be

Here tomorrow and he was doing uh several agreements down there but he will be back to tomorrow but you you know I say this over and over again if the police department can only function when the police commissioner is here we’re in trouble this is a well oil

Machine one person does not run the show in this city and this city and the police department functions everyone knows their roles everyone knows the responsibility right now we have the first Deputy Commissioner that’s in charge and we have an amazing apparatus in place this this is a professional

Department you don’t need one person uh to make sure that things are run smoothly and we look forward to having commissioner kaban uh back uh tomorrow anything else this be our Last tax how do prevent them I mean listen this is this is part of our business and we have to be prepared for everything so with loan with for tax it’s really about our training how we address our officers to make sure that they’re alert and prepared um we saw

This happen last year we were concerned about a lot of things and of all things that could possibly happen that’s what happened but we’re ready this year we’ve talked about it we’ve trained on it and officers are aware they’re aware there’ll be heads up um we ex expanded

Our zone for better Safety and Security and it’s all going to play into uh into uh the safety of that night good all right thanks everybody this concludes our press conference we’re looking forward to a safe and prosperous 2024 thank you for coming Out

Watch live as NYC Mayor Eric Adams speaks about New Year’s security preparations.

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