Transcript: Mayor Adams Makes New Year's Eve Public Safety-Related Announcement

December 29, 2023

Video available at: https://youtu.be/-XQZqfhYB0M

Deputy Commissioner Tarik Sheppard, Public Information, Police Department: Good afternoon, everybody. Excited to be here to kick off our New Year's Eve 2024 security press conference. We're looking forward to a happy, safe and prosperous new year to piggyback on a very safe year for the NYPD and New York City. So, without further ado, I want to kick it over to The Honorable Mayor Eric Adams.

Mayor Eric Adams: Thanks so much, Deputy Commissioner Sheppard, and really thank all of you. No one does it better than the New York City Police Department in bringing in a new year. Hundreds of thousands of people will be out here lined up. And no matter how often we see it, you never get used to it. The excitement remains over and over again, and we are really looking forward to ringing in 2024 here in Times Square.

I want to thank the team, the entire DOT, NYPD, FDNY, the Times Square Alliance. This is their show. This is their Super Bowl. This is their opportunity to show what they do best. When the lights are on on Broadway, the lights are on in New York City, the lights are on in America. This is America's city, and we are proud to host this major event.

Every year, thousands of people come here and they enjoy themselves. And we only have one ask: spend as much money as possible. Leave all that money right here in New York City. We want everyone to have a great time. We want everyone to follow the rules.

We want to make sure that we continue to move in the right direction. In this city, crime is down and jobs are up. We are trending in the direction that we committed and promised ourselves that we were going to do two years ago when this administration came into place. When we came into office… Don't you love New York? When we came into office every day we wanted to deliver on that promise.

Events of this size, we know how to safeguard events of this size. We have major events going on at one time in this city, and with the collaboration of all of our agencies and organizations we get it right and we do it right all the time. And this includes Patrol Service Bureau South, Transit Bureau, Intelligence and Counterterrorism Bureau and the Special Operations Division.

We will be out here with our canines, our horsebacks, our drones, our helicopters, our boats, the full complement of our public safety apparatus will be on display. Now, we're urging everyone, if you are here for the first time, you know you're not going to drive during this weekend. Public transportation is open. We are really encouraging everyone to use mass transit. And there's certain items you cannot bring into the safety zone, like large backpacks and alcoholic beverage are strictly prohibited, so please check before coming in so you won't be turned away.

We will find out the best routes to come in and the best time to be here. We know some folks line up early today, and remain here throughout the day. You know, more power to you. And we really love your enthusiasm and we encourage you to have a lot of fun this weekend.

So, I'm wishing everyone a healthy, safe, productive 2024. This is a great year that we've had here in the city with all the obstacles and challenges, and we are looking forward to leaning into 2024 and continue to do the things that we do, bring down crime and increase employment and know that this is the safest big city in America, New York City. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Deputy Commissioner Sheppard: Our next speaker will be our Chief of Department, Jeffrey Maddrey.

Chief Jeffrey Maddrey, Chief of Department, Police Department: You got it right. What a difference a year makes. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you, Mayor Adams. To all of our agency partners and to our president, Tom Harris. Let me begin by stating very clearly there are no specific credible threats to our New Year's Eve festivities or to the City of New York in general.

And I'm going to directly quote the mayor: no one does it like the NYPD. This is one of the most well policed, best protected events each year. Planning for this year's celebration began as soon as our partners from Sanitation cleaned up the last piece of confetti that fell here nearly a year ago. Each year we handle this enormous undertaking all while maintaining our ability to respond to calls for service throughout all five boroughs.

And we don't do this alone. We're in lockstep with our federal, state, our local agency partners including the Times Square Alliance to ensure a safe and enjoyable event for all. There will be thousands of uniformed police officers, including the 631 officers that graduated this morning from the police academy right here in the city.

Our special operations, our counterterrorism units, our K9 units will be deployed all throughout Times Square and throughout the city. There will be a large contingency of officers you won't see as well, many in plainclothes ensuring the safety of our city; and, watching overhead will be our aviation unit and our drone deployment package.

If you're joining us here in Times Square — the crossroads of the world — I encourage you to use public transportation. You will be guided into one of our pens where our police officers will be there. They will be wanding everyone for safety. Just a reminder, again, no backpacks, no duffle bags, large packages. No alcohol. These are all prohibited items.

But our officers will be there and they will be there to protect you. Our NYPD officers will be keeping everyone in attendance safe so you can celebrate ringing in the new year in the greatest city in the world. So, with that, I wish you all a happy and prosperous new year. We'll see you this weekend. And if you're looking for any more information, you can tune into our social media pages at NYPDNews, you can look at the Midtown South precinct's page, the Manhattan South Borough command's page, they will all be updated with more information about this weekend. So, thank you all.

Deputy Commissioner Sheppard: All right. Our next speaker is our partner and friend, president of the Times Square Alliance, Mr. Tom Harris.

Tom Harris, President, Times Square Alliance: Thank you very much. Thank you, Chief Maddrey, and thank you, Mayor Adams. I was looking at some of our pedestrian counts from two years ago when Mayor Adams took office, and we were averaging 150,000 people per day in Times Square. Our hotels were only at 38 percent.

Thanks to the work of the Adams administration, we're regularly welcoming over 300,000 people a day and our hotels are in the high eighties, low nineties and a lot of weekends they're sold out. So, thank you very much, Mayor Adams. You don't get enough credit for all that's right in the city.

We're here to talk about New Year's Eve. We are very happy to welcome everyone back to Times Square this year. Two years ago before Mayor Adams came in it was a reduced crowd. We are expecting hundreds of thousands of people in Times Square this year, and thanks to the hard work of the men and women of the New York City Police Department, they will have a safe experience.

So, we have a great show. We have 11 live performances in Times Square. The show's going to start at six o'clock at night and end at 12:15. And again, shout out to the members of the New York City Police Department and all the city agencies that will make sure that everyone has a safe, fantastic experience. Thank you.

Deputy Commissioner Sheppard: All right. With that, we'll take some on-topic security questions for New Year's Eve, and then I'll direct you to somebody on our leadership team that can answer.

Question: This is for Mayor Adams. Mr. Mayor, we've seen protests disrupt the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, [inaudible] disrupt the Rockefeller tree lighting [inaudible] same thing will happen again

[inaudible].

Mayor Adams: This department experienced well over 1,000 protests, several hundred, over 400 since October 7th. And unlike other municipalities, the ability to make these protests as peaceful as possible, they were successful in doing so.

We have witnessed that there's a small number of people who are trying to embed themselves in some of the protests and bring about disruption. It's not going to be tolerated. It's not going to be accepted.

This is a city where we're clear, there's no room for hate and there's no room for breaking laws. You break the law, you're going to have to deal with the New York City Police Department in the process. The New York City Police Department did an amazing job during the tree lighting with individuals trying to disrupt the tree lighting. They executed a well thought out plan and they're going to do so this time as well.

People are going to come here, ring in the new year, enjoy themselves in a safe way, and those who want to peacefully protest, they have the right to do so, but you're not going to do it at the expense of disrupting those who are coming here to peacefully bring in the new year.

Question: A year ago… First of all, many people we talk to here say they feel very safe coming to New Years Eve. [Inaudible]. 

Mayor Adams: Well, I think that, you know, if ever you want to see a well executed law enforcement apparatus, that's a perfect example of it. You had an individual who assaulted two police officers; and at the same time, we were minutes away from one of the largest events this city would host.

And the police responded accordingly. The necessary personnel responded to the threat. They terminated the threat and remained in police agency. They knew what their assignments were, what their posts were, and they made sure that they did not allow that threat to take their attention away from there.

We looked at that. Deputy Mayor Banks spoke with the Police Department personnel. We did an evaluation. We're going to make sure we continue to be laser focused, not to be distracted when you have a threat of that magnitude, because this person assaulted police officers, so there's a natural muscle memory that you want to respond to that.

But you saw really just the opposite. You saw a well, professional trained police department. And [Deputy Commissioner] Weiner and the entire team over at Intel, they are monitoring all the usual chatter, the suspects, and as the chief stated, there are no specific threats to the city. But as we saw last year, you don't have to have a specific threat to get a threat, and we're going to be ready to respond to that threat.

Question: [Inaudible.]

Mayor Adams: Let me give it to the often quoted Chief Chell.

Chief John Chell, Chief of Patrol, Police Department: I guess I gotta come up with a new quote.
Just like our police officer did at the tree lighting did a great job that night of keeping protesters out from a lawful assembly from unlawful behavior. So, we're going to mirror that with some changes, but our cops are doing just a great job [inaudible] tree lighting to keep them off our perimeter and have the celebration continue for 2024.

Question: Just to circle back on the protests in question real quick. Do you have any sense yet of how large you're expecting these protests to be? And then separately on a different matter, Mr. Mayor, that relates to protests. Earlier in the week you were talking about the NYPD settlement that related to that 2020 lawsuit, you were saying you always considered that a very troubling settlement in terms of law enforcement activity at protests.

When the city entered that settlement, though, you actually… You praised the settlement and said it struck the right balance. So, I'm just wondering how to… What changed there, why did you change your mind about… 

Mayor Adams: Well, because people exploit the intention of allowing individuals to peacefully protest. I think that people exploit that, and we're seeing some of that exploitation now. And when you do an analysis of it, although you're not allowed to block the bridges and prevent pedestrian movement, you are seeing, when you have 5,000 people deciding to block the bridge and all you could do is issue them a summons, I think it is encouraging behavior to be disruptive in the city. And I don't want to ever encourage behavior to be disruptive in the city. Who's going to talk about the...

Chief Chell: So, I mean, the groups that have regularly protested in regards to Israel Palestine have been a thousand to two to 5,000 on occasion, and you know, we're prepared for them at any number. We're prepared for different groups from different places. And you know, we will make sure this event stays safe and peaceful.

Question: [Inaudible].

Chief Maddrey: So, we're expanding our zone from 6th Avenue and 8th Avenue, from 41st Street to 57th Street. That gives us a buffer zone so we can move quickly if we have to like last year. And also it gives us a space between protesters not to come in here.

Question: This is just for anyone within the NYPD. How important is it to monitor the social media [inaudible] from some of these different protesters or just people who might be coming out here on New Year's Eve.

Chief Chell: So, we monitor social media 365 days a year to just determine any event in the city. And obviously when you have a crowd of a million people coming to a location, it's vital, it's part of what we do every day and we work with all our partners and a lot of people have eyes on it just to make sure that we're watching all the different platforms.

Question: [Inaudible] about possible protests, have you seen that already? Like, what do you do if you do see it pop up?

Chief Chell: There's a protest every day in New York City, so there's certainly going to be a protest on New Year's Eve.

Question: ...What technology is here to be implemented for the New Year's Eve.

Mayor Adams: The best. Kaz, you want to go into that?

Assistant Commissioner Kaz Daughtry Police Department: We're going to use the same footprint that we did for the tree lighting. We're going to have two drone trucks strategically parked along the actual New Year's Eve festivities and we're going to have drones deployed around the outer perimeter so we can monitor the protests and the… Potential protests that are coming in real time.

These drones give us the ability to get a bird's eye view of exactly what's going on, and it gives us an ability for the leadership team here you see behind me front row seats to the evolving incidents that may take place. Thank you.

Question: Just one quick… Where's Commissioner Caban? I'm noticing here's not here today.

Mayor Adams: He was in the Dominican Republic. He'll be here tomorrow. And he was doing several agreements down there, but he will be back tomorrow. But you know, I say this over and over again. If the Police Department could only function when the police commissioner is here, we're in trouble. This is a well‑oiled machine. One person does not run the show in this city. And this city and the police department functions, everyone knows their roles, everyone knows their responsibility.

Right now we have the first deputy commissioner that's in charge, and we have an amazing apparatus in place. This is a professional department. You don't need one person to make sure that things are run smoothly. And we look forward to having Commissioner Caban back tomorrow.

Question: [Inaudible].

Chief Maddrey: Listen, this is part of our business and we have to be prepared for everything. So, with lone wolf attacks, it's really about our training, how we address our officers to make sure that they're alert and prepared. We saw this happen last year. We were concerned about a lot of things; and of all things that could possibly happen, that's what happened.

But we're ready this year. We've talked about it, we've trained on it, and officers are aware. They're aware, they'll be heads up. We expanded our zone for better safety and security, and it's all going to play into the safety of that night.

Deputy Commissioner Sheppard: All right. Thanks, everybody. This concludes our press conference. We're looking forward to a safe and prosperous 2024. Thank you for coming out.

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