Drone Will Help Lock Down Times Square For New Year's Eve

NEW YORK — The NYPD has a new tool in its New Year's Eve security arsenal: A flying camera. The Police Department will deploy a drone to help lock down Times Square for the first time as millions of revelers ring in 2019, officials said Friday.

The drone will join thousands of cops, a phalanx of vehicles and hundreds of cameras in the massive security force protecting the city's largest and most famous New Year's Eve party.

The miniature aircraft will "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," said John Miller, the NYPD's deputy commissioner of intelligence and counterterrorism.

The NYPD unveiled a new fleet of 14 drones earlier this month that are meant to help in search and rescue missions, hostage situations, evidence searches and other circumstances.

The one sent up above Times Square on New Year's Eve will be tethered and the area below it will be cordoned off to avoid hurting anyone should it fall, said Chief of Department Terence Monahan.

The NYPD's drone ought to be the only one in the sky — the department will be deploying "counter-drone technology" to keep an eye out for any miscreant flyers over the massive ball drop crowd, Miller said.

"There’s no need to fly a drone, and if you do fly one there’s a good chance you’re going to end up getting arrested," Police Commissioner James O'Neill said.

Up to 2 million people are expected to line the streets for the annual celebration. Thousands of cops will be out with them, including plenty armed with big guns and other gear, officials said.

The NYPD's Aviation Unit will cover Times Square from above in addition to the drone, officials said. Cops will also be watching feeds from more than 1,200 cameras on the ground, Miller said.

The NYPD has assigned detectives to hotels around Times Square again this year, a precautionary step taken after last year's mass shooting at a Las Vegas music festival. Hotel staff will be able to get those cops into "any place they need to look" with their master keys, Miller said.

"If anybody sees something suspicious they know those investigators are there," he said.

Times Square will be closed off at 4 a.m. on Monday and the viewing pens will open around 11 a.m. Backpacks, coolers, lawn chairs, umbrellas, large packages and alcohol are all banned from the viewing area.

Cops will be screening spectators to make sure no suspicious objects get in, said Chief of Patrol Rodney Harrison. More than 200 blocker vehicles will be placed in the area and bomb-detecting dogs will be stationed at security checkpoints, Miller said.

While there are no credible threats to the New Year's Eve celebration, officials urged New Yorkers to keep an eye out for suspicious activity that night.

"There are millions of eyes and ears out there that night and if anyone sees something that doesn’t look right, that makes them feel uncomfortable, we need to know about it," O'Neill said.

(Lead image: Members of the NYPD patrol Times Square on Dec. 31, 2017. Photo by Stephanie Keith/Getty Images)