Officials diligent about Times Square security

PopHistorian

The Living Force
FOTCM Member
What an understatement. The article's title refers to the annual New Year celebration in New York City's Times Square, which attracts up to one million people and is televised on numerous networks in the US every year.

USA Today: _http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-12-30-times-square-security_N.htm
Finer detail at Security Info Watch: _http://forums.securityinfowatch.com/showthread.php?p=117550
and at PoliceOne.com: _http://www.policeone.com/homeland-security/articles/3137700-Securing-Times-Square-on-New-Years-Eve/

If you see the Times Square event, what you'll be watching is an entirely managed event. Every spectator is vetted by the state, individually screened via metal detectors and possibly pat-downs, with their backpacks and any other suspicious items confiscated. Once inside the staging area (the recent 20 inches of snow carefully removed), they will be monitored by radiation detectors, undercover counterintelligence agents, plain-clothes police, 400 security cameras, and naturally, snipers on rooftops. Times Square hotel guests will have their movements restricted and be under surveillance by hotel staff. "'If they think they are going to just walk outside at 11:30 to see the ball drop, they're wrong,' said hotel marketing director Kathy Duffy." Just imagine, thinking you might have that kind of freedom in today's America. All kinds of other crazy, expensive measures are being taken such as sealing manholes, removing mailboxes from the streets -- can you believe this?
 
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