NYPD counterterrorism works on best practices | 12.11.2006 | 05:35:40 | Views: 5245 | ID: December 11 '06: After the attacks on September 11, 2001 the New York City Police Department revamped its counterterrorism and intelligence operations as well as the way police officials conduct their day-to-day operations by pulling together a list of "best practices' from other law enforcement agencies worldwide, McClatchy News reported late last week. The news service followed police officers during the recent Thanksgiving Holiday. Brian Michael Jenkins, a counterterrorism expert from the RAND Corp. , told McClatchy, "The NYPD has been doing very sophisticated, very creative things," to secure the city and prepare against a possible terrorist attack. McClatchy reported, "He labeled many of the city's initiatives as 'best practices' adopted from law-enforcemnet agencies worldwide." Those adoptions to improve the response and preparedness of the NYPD include: a regular "surge" of police cars with lights flashing to sensitive locations around the city, such as the UN. The arrival of the police cars with the lights flashing helps in "driving off terrorists who might be eyeing potential targets,"; setting up intelligence checkposts around the city that serve as a nexus for officers on the beat to centralize daily intelligence briefings; and increased subway surveillance. To date there are more than 1000 NYPD detectives assigned to counterterrorism posts. Working with the private sector, McClatchy reported, "Officers in the Intelligence Division's 'Shield' program inspect major corporate facilities and alert them to security weaknesses. ... [P]olice in the Nexus program implore sensitive businesses, such as those that sell guns or chemicals, to report suspicious activity." Communications between police and firefighters are interoperable, and a new information-sharing and emergency management operations center has opened in Brooklyn. The NYPD's library also now has literature on radical Islam, and a multimedia room "that monitors broadcasts of the Arabic-language TV network Al-jazeera." In the last five years since 9/11, the "NYPD [has] trained nearly 12,000 cops how to respond to a biological, chemical or radiological attack in moon suits."
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