Police Commissioner O'Neill Announces Security Plan for Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

November 20, 2017

First and foremost, I'd like to thank the 36,000 uniformed members of the New York City Police Department for what they do every day and, especially, the police officers assigned to the events this week. They'll be away from their families, making sure the rest of us are safe and secure.

The NYPD is ready for this week.

One thing I've learned since I've become the Police Commissioner is that New Yorkers — I've known this for a long time, but it's reinforced — New Yorkers are strong and resilient, and they don't make decisions based on fear. We've had a couple of tough months as a nation. And, you know — among other incidents — I'm specifically talking about the shooting in Las Vegas, and the terror attack in Lower Manhattan on Halloween. As I've said before, we won't ever accept such acts of hate and cowardice as inevitable in our society — certainly not here in New York.

And I want to assure the people that we swore to protect, that anytime something happens anywhere in the world, the NYPD works with our law enforcement partners and studies it. And we learn from it. And it informs our decision-making going forward in terms of deployment and other security measures.

What you'll see this year at the Thanksgiving Day Parade will be in addition to what we did last year. You'll see every intersection — there will be more blocker cars, and there will be sand-filled Sanitation trucks. And this is the third year in a row we'll be using our Critical Response Command cops, who are specifically assigned to counterterrorism duties. And they'll be working alongside our Strategic Response Group officers, our Patrol cops, and our Emergency Service Unit, too. And there will be a much the public won't see, as well. The bottom line is ... we want everyone to come out and enjoy what is really a great tradition in New York City every Thanksgiving. And know that the layers of security and protection we will provide again this year have been in the planning stages since the end of last year's parade.

We're all looking forward to another great holiday again this year, and we know New Yorkers are, as well. We'll see you out there on Thursday, and on Wednesday night, too.

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NYPD Outlines enhanced security measures and street closures for Thanksgiving Day Parade Festivities