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Heavily Armed NYPD Units to Patrol Thanksgiving Day Parade

By Trevor Kapp | November 24, 2015 3:12pm
 NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton said the department is beefing up patrol for this year's Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.
NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton said the department is beefing up patrol for this year's Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.
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DNAinfo/Ben Fractenberg

ONE POLICE PLAZA — The NYPD is beefing up security to monitor expected record-breaking crowds for this year’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade — including adding hundreds of heavily armed officers from its newly formed counterterrorism unit.

About 200 officers from the elite Critical Response Command will patrol the parade route, stretching from West 77th Street and Central Park West to 34th Street and Sixth Avenue, NYPD officials said.

Hundreds of officers from the Emergency Service Unit, the K-9 Unit and mounted patrol will also man the stretch, in addition to the uniformed officers and plainclothes police.

“We always police that parade with very large numbers of uniformed officers,” NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton said. “This year, you will see an even a larger presence.”

The CRC, which was unveiled by Bratton and Mayor Bill de Blasio just days after the deadly Paris terrorist attacks, is armed with special weapons and enhanced body armor. It specializes in active-shooter scenarios.

Officers from the Strategic Response Group, which typically monitors large crowds, will also be present.

“Some of those officers will be equipped with the long guns, the rifles,” Bratton said.

“We’ll have additional Hercules teams … the heavily armed entities that will be around the area, the parade route. I think the police presence will heighten the sense of security.”

The festivities begin Wednesday at 11:30 a.m. with balloon inflation from West 77th Street to West 81st Street, between Columbus Avenue and Central Park West.

Thursday’s parade will feature 17 character balloons, 27 floats, 13 marching bands and 8,000 total marchers

The parade route will stretch 2 1/2 miles, first down Central Park West, then across 59th Street and down Sixth Avenue to 34th Street.

Bratton said that while other cities might warn residents to avoid large crowds, in New York, it’s come-one, come-all.

“We’re here encouraging, ‘Come down and join the crowd,’” he said. “It’s how New York City works. It’s how it’s always worked. It’s how it always will work.”