Ex-NYPD commissioner says NYC is prepared to handle Election Day safety

Caitlin Dickson
·Reporter

For the first time since 1944, both major-party presidential candidates will spend election night in New York City.

But former New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said Monday that he doesn’t think New Yorkers need to be any more more worried about terror threats as they cast their ballots on Election Day than during past elections.

“No question about it — New York is a target,” Kelly told Yahoo News and Finance Anchor Bianna Golodryga on Monday, shortly after Mayor Bill de Blasio held a press conference detailing the city’s plan for “beefed up” security ahead of Election Day.

But beyond de Blasio’s promised to deploy “an extraordinary presence” of police officers at polling sites and other major locations throughout New York City, Kelly said, “I don’t think there’s much more that can be done, quite frankly,” to safeguard against a potential attack.

Kelly said that the NYPD, the nation’s largest municipal police department, is already “at a higher state of alert, generally speaking, and maintains that throughout the year.” He said he dealt with 16 different terror threats against New York City during his most recent tenure as police commissioner from 2002 through 2013.

“I believe the department is well-equipped and ready for virtually any contingency,” he said, noting that there are “600 major events south of 59th Street” in Manhattan alone every year, including U.N. General Assembly meetings and the New Year’s Eve celebration in Times Square. “But there are no guarantees,” he added.

Kelly said, “We’ve seen these threats before major events,” but he pointed out that, in terror attacks that have actually been carried out, in New York and elsewhere, “You normally don’t get a warning.”

Republican nominee Donald Trump has been making escalating charges for weeks about a “rigged system,” including discredited claims about widespread voter fraud. Kelly said he was concerned about whether rising national tensions could erupt on Wednesday, but he also sounded a note of optimism.

“We’re a country of laws. We want to maintain order, and it’s important that we keep that in mind,” he said. “It’s not in the nature of Americans to be disruptive during the polling process. We haven’t seen systematic voter fraud that I’m aware of, certainly not in this city.”

(Cover thumbnail photo: Stuart Ramson/Invision for Kelly Cares Foundation/AP Images)