By Rocco Parascandola
New York Daily News
NEW YORK — More than 600 rookie cops still in training will be part of the NYPD’s Times Square security coverage on New Year’s Eve, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Monday.
Police will also use six drones above Times Square and nearby blocks, up from four last year, with additional drones patrolling other parts of the city.
Tisch said there are “no specific credible threats” targeting Times Square, where more than one million people are expected to gather to watch the ball drop and ring in the near year.
But she noted that since the Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack in Israel, police have “been operating in a heightened threat environment and remain vigilant.”
In addition to scores of cops in plainclothes there will be highly-trained Emergency Services cops on rooftops, Aviation Unit cops in helicopters and bomb-sniffing dogs on the streets. Manhole covers will be sealed, Tisch said, and mailboxes and garbage pails will be removed from sidewalks.
And, as usual, cops set to graduate the Police Academy next week, more than 600 this year, “will be out here tomorrow working their first detail and taking their front row seat to the greatest show on earth,” Tisch said.
Two years ago, one such cop was among three attacked and wounded by self-declared jihadist Trevor Bickford, 19, who was armed with a machete.
Polce at the scene — Eighth Ave. and W. 52nd St., just outside the frozen zone — then shot and wounded Bickford, who was later convicted of federal charges and sentenced to 27 years in prison.
Interim NYPD Chief of Department John Chell Monday said police responded last year by creating a ring of police officers around the zone’s perimeter and will do so again this year.
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