NYPD will use metal detectors to prevent shootings during July 4 fireworks
The recent spike in shootings that has New Yorkers on edge will have an impact on the big July 4 fireworks show as well.
In an effort to make sure the only blasts during the return of the annual Macy’s spectacular come from the pyrotechnics, the NYPD will require spectators who want to watch from Manhattan’s FDR Drive to pass through metal detectors first, NYPD Chief of Patrol Juanita Holmes said Thursday.
In addition, cops will make the unprecedented move of closing the Williamsburg and 59th Street bridges to traffic during the nation’s largest fireworks show, Holmes said.
The stunning security measures were announced amid a surge in gunplay that includes the recent broad-daylight shooting of a tourist in Times Square and a chilling, caught-on-camera incident in which a pair of kids miraculously avoided gang-related gunfire in the Bronx.
An NYPD cop with more than 20 years on the job told The Post, “It just goes to show you how unsafe the city is now.”
“The mayor for the past four or five years has been saying we’re the safest city in the United States,” the cop said.
“We’ve gone from that to now needing to bring in metal detectors because they can’t curb the violence in New York City … What a sad state of affairs”
Holmes revealed the safety plan just three days before the fireworks and it isn’t mentioned on the website of Macy’s, its prime sponsor.
During a City Hall news conference with Mayor Bill de Blasio, Holmes said the NYPD “will have officers virtually everywhere throughout the event.”
“Beyond our uniformed officers, we’ll also have some plainclothes officers out there,” she said.
NYPD K-9 teams, the Bomb Squad and the Harbor Patrol will also be on the scene for the aerial show over the East River, Holmes said.
“We will maintain our counterterrorism overlay,” she added.
The last time such stringent safety measures were put in place was in 2002, for the first July Fourth celebration following the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
At that time, spectators had to pass three checkpoints to get to the FDR Drive and visitors to the Statue of Liberty were screened with metal detectors.
