As everyone who has stepped outside their apartments or headed to their offices, especially ones in Midtown Manhattan, at least once since last Saturday can attest, there have been a ton of police around. Newsday has statistics that break down the NYPD's policing strategy:
- 11,867 officers and supervisors worked the convention every day. ("That is more than three times larger than the number of officers ever assigned to a presidential nominating convention. It's also more than the total of every other police department in the country except for Chicago, which has about 13,400 officers.")
- RNC detail: Four assistant chiefs, eight deputy chiefs, 24 inspectors, 60 deputy inspectors, 177 captains, 440 lieutenants, 1,286 sergeants, 9,868 police officers. Then adding 912 recruits and 270 traffic agents, the total is over 13,000.
Some tasks:
- Of the 968 cops working from the Intelligence Division, 571 did "undercover" duties.
- 937 officers were assigned to demonstration areas around Madison Square Garden.
- 117 officers made so-called quality of life sweeps for drugs, prostitution and other vice around the Garden.
- 511 cops were stationed at various hotels throughout midtown.
- 196 officers were sent to patrol "sensitive locations."
- 1,144 cops were assigned to Penn Station.
During the Democratic Convention, Boston used about 3,000 police officres, and Newsday notes that 3,500 police were used during the RNC in Philadelphia in 2000. Other factors prompting the NYPD to really intensify their presence include the WTO protests in 1999, NYC being in the bull's eye of terror, and perhaps the influx of red staters in the blue city.
Elsewhere, the NYPD is pretty happy that crime has been down the past week - except where there are protesters involved - noting that there were only 8 shootings on Monday and Tuesday whereas there had been 18 during the same period last year. The Mayor said:
One of the things I'm most proud of is if you take a look at the rest of the city, we've kept crime down. We're doing our job throughout all five boroughs, at the same time as we have this extra job of providing security here around Madison Square Garden.
But don't be getting any ideas that NYC needs another convention any time soon, okay, because some of the businesses having exactly been swimming in the riches of the visitors.
The Daily News has a nice human interest piece that speaks to the power of being able to have your own opinion: It's about a family whose son, a police cadet, was on patrol during the convention and whose daughter was protesting - and arrested.
