NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) – The NYPD is preparing for disruptions during this year's New Year's Eve celebration in Times Square, as there have been nearly 500 protests in the city since early October, Mayor Eric Adams said.
"There's always a serious concern around safety on New Year's Eve, because there's a large number of people," the mayor said during a news conference on Tuesday. "Everyone looks for events like this if they want to do bad things, and the police department is on top of it."
Adams said that in addition to the usual safety concerns, it's likely there will be protest activity in the Times Square area Sunday ahead of the midnight ball drop, just as there was during the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree lighting late last month, when a handful of protesters were arrested on nearby Sixth Avenue at a demonstration over the Israel-Hamas war.
"There's an added concern, because of some of the protests you have been seeing," the mayor said.
"There was an attempt to disrupt the tree lighting, and we're sure that there's going to be some type of attempt this year to use that stage for some other concerns that people are having," he continued.
Adams said there have been 483 protests related to the Israel-Hamas war citywide since Hamas launched its deadly terror attack on Israel on Oct. 7.
NYPD officers guard an entrance to Penn Station during a pro-Palestinian protest on Dec. 18, 2023.Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
This year's New Year's bash also comes after last year's machete attack on NYPD officers by an alleged lone wolf.
In that attack, a 19-year-old Maine man, Trevor Thomas Bickford, is accused of wounding three NYPD officers at a screening area at West 52nd Street and Eighth Avenue before he was shot and detained. He faces terror and other charges in a federal case that's set to go to trial in March 2024.
"NYPD analyzed our response to that, and we're making sure that we don't use distractions to get in the way of staying on our posts, staying on our locations and making sure we don't allow someone to pull us off," Adams said Tuesday.
"And as always, we're monitoring the chatter, you know, monitoring the chatter out there, so we can be prepared," the mayor added.
Asked by a reporter if there was "anything to that chatter," the mayor only said, " You know, if we did, we wouldn't mention that."
"But lone wolves are challenging," Adams added. "Like the individual, the perpetrator last year, he wasn't on anyone's radar. His assault on those [three] police officers, you just, you have to be ready for those unpredictable circumstances. It's a real herculean task to manage that number of people without being heavy handed but being protective."
An estimated 1 million people will flock to Times Square for the 2024 ball drop, with another 1 billion people watching the festivities worldwide, according to the city.
A threat assessment obtained by ABC News last week found Times Square is an "attractive target" for bad actors like foreign terrorists and violent homegrown extremists but that there is "no specific" threat.
