‘Elite’ NYPD Anti-Terrorism Unit Trained to Deal With Paris-Style Attack
(DNAINFO) Jeff Mays | November 16, 2015 — Saying a “new reality” has emerged after the deadly Paris terror attacks, Police Commissioner Bill Bratton and Mayor Bill de Blasio on Monday unveiled a new elite counterterrorism unit.
The Critical Response Command team has 500 officers who have received special training in counterterrorism, 100 of which will be on patrol at any time in precincts throughout the city.
The unit will be housed in the former headquarters for the Street Crimes Unit on Randall’s Island to give them quick access to three of the five boroughs and the city’s waterways.”We know our city is the chief terror target in this country,” de Blasio said.
Bratton said that ISIS, which claimed credit for the attacks in Paris, has surpassed al-Qaida in terms of its ability to hit targets, bomb airplanes and recruit so-called lone wolf attackers, so the NYPD needed to upgrade its counterterrorism efforts.