If you needed another excuse not to go to Times Square this New Years Eve, here's one: the New York City Police Department will be deploying drones during the celebration to enforce security.
As if the two million projected attendees wouldn't already steer you away, this year the massive crowds will be accompanied by flying drones overhead. The drones will be tethered to nearby buildings to avoid the semi-autonomous figures from falling into the crowds.
This is a first for the annual affair and because this is a new measure, no other drones will be allowed in the air that night. However, there will be approximately 1,200 cameras in attendance to help monitor the area. Part of the department's counter-terror initiative, these drones will be functioning purely to deter terrorist activity.
“What’s different this year is the counter-drone technology and the drone factor,” Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence and Counterterrorism John Miller explained. “We’ll be deploying NYPD drones for overwatch. We haven’t done that before, but that’s going to give us a visual aid and a flexibility of being able to move a camera to a certain spot with great rapidity through a tremendous crowd,” he said.
Additionally, Miller explained that intelligence officers have already started implementing security measures within nearby hotels. Officers will be working alongside hotel staff to monitor the guests, with the intent of easily identifying any individual who is not authorized to be on the premises. According to the NYPD as well as the FBI, there are no known threats ahead of the event.
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