by Thomas A. Reppetto
Here’s a question for the candidates maneuvering to succeed Mayor Bloomberg: Will you commit to preserving the anti-terrorism institutions created under Police Commissioner Ray Kelly?
Taking office in the wake of 9/11, Kelly has created an intelligence capability and a counterterrorism force far superior to anything ever before seen in a US police department. The NYPD has become a major player in domestic security, almost rivaling the FBI.
Few realize how difficult it was to institute the “Kelly system” of counterterrorism. Tasks like intelligence work are quite different from conventional law enforcement, and a police department’s normal operations are not optimum for countering terrorist strikes.
‘Coatholders’ no more: Police Commissioner Ray Kelly has made the NYPD one of the nation’s chief anti-terror assets.
Police detectives follow a case-by-case approach. Their goal is to snap the cuffs on the bad guy and book him. Good intelligence work requires a more strategic approach, such as analyses of what some group like al Qaeda is likely to do in the future.
Pre-9/11, NYPD intelligence officers were generally called “coat holders” — the cops’ name for officers who escort dignitaries. Kelly brought in as deputy commissioner for intelligence David Cohen, formerly No. 3 at the CIA.
In an unprecedented move, Kelly and Cohen stationed detectives in over a dozen foreign cities to maintain liaison with the local police. When a terrorist incident occurs overseas, an NYPD detective quickly responds to the scene, gathers information and flashes it to New York.
At an out-of-the-way facility in New York City, skilled linguists monitor al Jazeera and similar media looking for clues of a future attack. Others listen to recorded conversations between terrorist suspects. As in the Pentagon or the CIA headquarters at Langley, Va., highly educated specialists prepare sophisticated studies analyzing various problems.
The NYPD is now also highly trained as first responders in case of disaster. This involves the rapid mobilization, deployment and direction of large forces — a dramatic shift from normal routine, where cops work alone or in pairs.
When rioting broke out in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn in 1991, the NYPD mobilization was disjointed. When police finally did assemble, many officers often stood around awaiting orders while citizens were being assaulted or their homes attacked.
No more. As deputy commissioner in charge of counterterrorism, Kelly named first retired Marine Lt.-Gen. Frank Libutti, then Mike Sheehan, a West Point-educated colonel who had served as the US ambassador at large on terrorism. Under Libutti and Sheehan, it became a familiar sight to see black vans suddenly pull up outside the UN complex, Rockefeller Center or similar places and disgorge officers in helmets and flak jackets cradling automatic weapons.
Thomas A. ReppettoSource: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/keeping_nyc_terror_free_lcXzW8NBNm6eHCwEgW1ENN?utm_medium=rss&utm_content=Oped%20Columnists
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