NYPD To Use Trucks To Defend Against Possible Truck Terror Attack In Times Square

The New York Police Department says that they’ll use trucks as a line of defense to protect the New Year’s Eve celebration in Times Square against terror attacks using trucks.

The move comes after trucks were used as weapons for terrorists in Berlin and Nice this year, crashing into large crowds of people and claiming 96 lives altogether.

The expected crowd of two million people will be defended by 65 20-ton sanitation trucks loaded up with an extra 15 tons of sand. The “blocker” trucks will be strategically placed in intersections to block any type of truck attack.

In addition to the trucks, police will deploy 100 cruisers and 7,000 officers, bomb-sniffing dogs, and counterterrorism agents.

The NYPD has used blocker trucks as a defense against possible terrorist attacks before, but this is the largest-scale use of them in the city’s history. The blocker trucks were utilized during this year’s Thanksgiving Day parade and on Election Day to protect the Trump and Clinton headquarters in New York.

There are currently no known terror threats for New York on New Year’s Eve.

There will be hundreds of blocker vehicles, including @NYCSanitation trucks, and concrete blocks helping to protect NYE in NYC pic.twitter.com/yo8wccl3cw

— NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) December 29, 2016

Sources:
Bloomberg
Newsday
Seattle PI