New York City
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Tennis followers, many with the US Open’s signature Honey Deuces in hand, are making their technique to New York City to look at the sport’s biggest stars. The focus will probably be on Venus Williams’ return and which newcomer may have a breakout match.
Law enforcement needs it to remain that method.
Almost a month after the deadliest mass shooting in New York City in the previous 25 years, regulation enforcement is flooding the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center with law enforcement officials, security and superior know-how — all to verify the focus stays on the tennis.
Every high-profile assault, whether or not in New York or wherever in the world, causes the security plan to get a brand new wrinkle. More cement blocks and street restrictions are in place after vehicle-ramming incidents, like the Bourbon Street attack in New Orleans that left 14 useless on New Year’s Day.
While NYPD’s Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence and Counterterrorism Rebecca Weiner says there are not any credible threats to New York, an assault like the Midtown mass shooting remains to be on the forefront of everybody’s thoughts.
“That incident reenforces all the security preparations that we put in place every year for this event,” Weiner tells NCS. “(It’s) the reason that we lay down cement blocks, the reason we check vehicles, the reason we screen people, not just as they’re entering the threshold of this plaza but way before.”
Weiner says she and her workforce put rather a lot of thought into their security plan, which was developed over the previous few months.
Specialized NYPD models together with scores of each uniformed and plain-clothed officers are out in droves, all dealing with the file crowd which is projected to achieve over a million spectators by the time the high-profile match is over. There are heavy weapons groups posted throughout the venue, together with magnetometers to test spectators. Canine models and anti-drone assault know-how have even been deployed. Specialized models, together with bomb squad, aviation, mounted and emergency service models, additionally patrol the grounds.
One of the emphases at the US Open, Weiner mentioned, is utilizing the intelligence to intercept threats earlier than they materialize. Another is on hardening the perimeter in comparison with previous years — together with thorough checkpoints for spectators, she mentioned.
The gunman who stormed into 345 Park Avenue on July 28 was armed with an AR-15-style rifle. Surveillance cameras captured him leaving his automotive close to the constructing and getting into with an M4 assault-style rifle in hand earlier than he killed four people, together with a real-estate government and a police officer who was working as a security guard.
“Obviously that horrific incident, a large firearm, which was obvious to the naked eye – we’re talking about making sure that smaller objects, smaller weapons which are not obvious to the naked eye, are also detected just as readily,” Weiner mentioned.
The NYPD will run a number of interagency conferences every day of the two-week match to overview their security plans and make any obligatory changes for each the day periods and the night time periods.
High-ranking officers can even be at a command middle, positioned inside the tennis middle, the place members of the NYPD’s Intelligence workforce are shoulder-to-shoulder with the FBI, New York City Emergency Management, the FDNY and different regulation enforcement and first responding companions, in accordance with Deputy Chief of Counterterrorism James Kehoe.
It’s a method that works throughout all main occasions and helps regulation enforcement work collectively rapidly, ought to they must cease a menace, Kehoe mentioned.
The main problem is executing the subtle security plan for the US Open which takes place just some ft away from Flushing Meadow Corona Park – one of the largest public parks in New York City.
“If you go on the other side of the globe, you’ve got people playing soccer, volleyball, barbecuing, the tents, picnics, so we try to look at ‘where does the hardening perimeter start,’” Kehoe mentioned.
“We want to make sure we have a safe distance from the actual event so if something should happen (it) would not be able to get through and attack the US Open.”